The Ghost Writer

Infobox Book |
name = The Ghost Writer
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Vintage 1995 reprint cover
author = Philip Roth
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = "Zuckerman Bound"
genre = Novel
publisher = Farrar, Straus & Giroux
release_date = 1979
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 180 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-374-16189-5
preceded_by =
followed_by = Zuckerman Unbound

"The Ghost Writer" (1979) is the first novel by Philip Roth to be narrated by Nathan Zuckerman, one of Roth's alter egos and constitutes the first book in his "Zuckerman Bound" trilogy and epilogue. The novel touches on themes common to many Roth works, including identity, the responsibilities of authors to their subjects, and the condition of Jews in America.

Plot introduction

Nathan Zuckerman is a promising young writer who spends a night in the home of E.I. Lonoff, an established author whom Zuckerman idolizes (and who is, some critics have argued, a portrait of Bernard Malamud or Henry Roth). Also staying in the Lonoff home is Amy Bellette, a young woman with a vague past. In a remarkable sequence, the narrator suggests that Amy Bellette might be Anne Frank who has survived the Holocaust and is living in the United States anonymously. It only becomes apparent at the end of this section that it is a fiction imagined by Zuckerman. He later confronts Amy, telling her that she looks like Anne Frank, but she fails to react in the way his fiction has encouraged him to hope.

Television movie

In 1984 a television adaptation was made of the book in the UK. It was directed by Tristram Powell and starred Rose Arrick, Claire Bloom, Sam Wanamaker, Cecile Mann, MacIntyre Dixon, Mark Linn-Baker, Ralph Morse, Joseph Wiseman, and Patricia Fellows.

External links

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