From the bestselling author of "Fatherland" and "Imperium" comes an extraordinary thriller of power, politics, corruption and murder.
Dashing, c... read full description
reviews
Oct 18, 2009
Dennis D.
rated it: 
To me, a good thriller can be like a colonic...something breezy and unsubstantial to flush the system out, especially if one has just finished something bloated and ponderous (I'm talking about YOU, Tree of Smoke)!
"The Ghost" is a good thriller. A recently retired-from-office British Prime Minister hires a ghost-writer (duh- because the story is written in the first person, I never noticed that the name of the narrator/protagonist is never supplied) to help him write his More...
"The Ghost" is a good thriller. A recently retired-from-office British Prime Minister hires a ghost-writer (duh- because the story is written in the first person, I never noticed that the name of the narrator/protagonist is never supplied) to help him write his More...
4 comments
like
(6 people liked it)
Aug 01, 2008
Susy
rated it: 
I supposed this was a roman a clef since Harris was –as mentioned everywhere- a former friend of the Blairs. It’s just a thriller with enough links with what we think is the reality of politics to feel as fact. And he wields a scalpel on them with finesse and venom. An ex British PM is “writing” his memoirs with the help of a former aide who is found drowned in an apparent suicide. Enters a professional ghost-writer, the first person narrator of the novel, whose name we never found out. And
More...
0 comments
like
(4 people liked it)
Mar 27, 2008
will
rated it:
The Ghost by Robert Harris.
A roller-coaster of a book - and not in a good way.
I like Robert Harris books and I loved his last one - Imperium. I loved it so much that I was really looking forward to the next in the series (neil h. informed me that it was part of a trilogy). Therefore I was a little meh about the fact he had taken time out to write The Ghost. Damn writers and their need to write a story instead of the one I wanted to read! However, there was bra More...
Feb 12, 2009
kinu
rated it: 
ada dua tokoh cerita dalam buku ini yang menurut saya bakal sulit ditemukan di indonesia (bahkan saya menyangkanya gak ada). yang pertama tentu saja sang penulis bayangan; seseorang yang dibayar untuk menulis otobiografi, yang namanya tidak disebutkan (tentu saja kalau disebutkan akan ketahuan kalau bukan otobiografi), dan bekerja dalam tenggat waktu tertentu (biasanya ketat). yang kedua adalah agen yang "memiliki" penulis bayangan, yang pekerjaannya menghubungkan "pekerjanya"
More...
3 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Apr 19, 2009
Kathleen
rated it:
A successful ghost-writer is suddenly asked to complete the ex-British Prime Minister's memoirs. Against his better judgement he says yes, and finds himself in Martha's Vineyard in the winter, among a group of highly stressed people (the ex-PM, his wife, a PA, some secretaries, the security team) who are having to deal with fall-out from the collusion with the US in the "War on Terror" and torture of prisoners.
Our ghost-writer notices a few strange things, but bumbles alon More...
Our ghost-writer notices a few strange things, but bumbles alon More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jan 26, 2012
C.J.
rated it: 
Scary!
Following on from a body of solid work, Harris does not disappoint with this political thriller. The most effective aspect of the book, though, is the way that it taps into the fears and paranoia of the modern world. The protagonist, the Ghost of the title, is the writer hired to ghost ex-prime minister Adam Lang's memoirs after the sudden - suspicious? - death of his predecessor. This takes us into Lang's inner circle just at a time when allegations are being made that could More...
Following on from a body of solid work, Harris does not disappoint with this political thriller. The most effective aspect of the book, though, is the way that it taps into the fears and paranoia of the modern world. The protagonist, the Ghost of the title, is the writer hired to ghost ex-prime minister Adam Lang's memoirs after the sudden - suspicious? - death of his predecessor. This takes us into Lang's inner circle just at a time when allegations are being made that could More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Nov 19, 2011
James
rated it:
The Ghost by Robert Harris is the first book about a writer that I can remember getting excited to read, glad to trumpet, and eager to put on my 'must read again' list.
It's tough to write a novel about a writer. Most of writing is, unfortunately, solitary and tedious. Write a line, hate it, delete it, rewrite it. A lot of bad literary fiction treats the writerly life, as stumped writers write about what they know: writing badly. This novel is about a ghostwriter who specializes in More...
It's tough to write a novel about a writer. Most of writing is, unfortunately, solitary and tedious. Write a line, hate it, delete it, rewrite it. A lot of bad literary fiction treats the writerly life, as stumped writers write about what they know: writing badly. This novel is about a ghostwriter who specializes in More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Feb 16, 2009
MD
rated it:
This is a topical thriller with a British Prime Minister politically based on Tony Blair (I have no idea about the personal stuff). At the beginning of his career he was nearly as popular as Obama. At the end, he was reviled as a puppet of the US. He is writing his memoirs, and naturally everyone wants to know the truth about the War on Terror--except, of course, those who don't want their secrets revealed. As thrillers go, this one is fairly low-key--more psychological than action. I reall
More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Feb 05, 2009
Kyle
rated it:
Another hit, and a reason to get into more of Harris' modern work - although I am really looking forward to Conspiracy when it comes out later this year. Keeping up with his writerly inclusion of other people's books at the head of each chapter (in this case Andrew Crofts' handbook Ghostwriting), Harris proves himself as writer very much in love with and indebted to reading. The ghost in this story lives up to his eponymous calling, for lack of any name for the main character, and seems to be
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Dec 03, 2007
Don
rated it:
This is a standard thriller with the added spice of being very familiar to current headline readers. A British Prime Minister retires and looks forward to publishing his memoirs. However, his "ghost", a longtime aide finds some information that leads to the conclusion that the PM authorized, aided and abetted torture while in office. The literary "ghost" becomes a literal ghost under suspicious circumstances. An apolitical hack is brought in to finish the memoirs and that
More...
Aug 06, 2011
A charismatic, almost fanatically pro US ex UK Prime Minister with a less than admired wife. Now who on Earth could we possibly be talking about???? Harris's novel takes a "What if..." approach to fictionally rewriting the story of Blair, for who else could it be, at the point where he is making his money on the back of his years in power.
Now he wants to tell his side of the story, not the least because he is to be charged at The Hague with war crimes over being complicit with the More...
Now he wants to tell his side of the story, not the least because he is to be charged at The Hague with war crimes over being complicit with the More...
Feb 05, 2009
Known for Fatherland (1992), Pompeii (**** Selection Mar/Apr 2004), and Imperium (*** Jan/Feb 2007), novelist Robert Harris opens his latest work with a derisive account of the publishing business. From there, it quickly gains momentum, merging a shrewd indictment of the war in Iraq with a literate, page-turning thriller. Harris, who was once a friend of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, offers a withering, barely disguised attack on Blair's policies and his collusion with the United Sta
More...
Dec 22, 2011
Melissa
rated it:
A ghostwriter takes over the job of ghosting the memoirs of former British prime minister Adam Lang after Lang's former ghostwriter suddenly dies — and just as the Lang is charged with war crimes. Lang looks a lot like Tony Blair, & some of the issues attending Blair attend Lang, too: Lang has been a lapdog to U.S. interests in the "War on Terror." The question at the heart of this novel: Why?
The book is written in first person from the ghostwriter's POV, and it's as a wri More...
The book is written in first person from the ghostwriter's POV, and it's as a wri More...
Oct 29, 2011
Carl
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Sep 16, 2011
Jacquelynn
rated it:
With serendipitous timing, my book circle read ‘The Ghost’ by Robert Harris, this month. Serendipitous, because the main character of the book is someone engaged to be the ghost writer of the ex-Prime Minister of the UK, who resembles to a certain extent our own ex-Prime Minister, Tony Blair. In the novel, he is accused of crimes relating to extraordinary rendition, which, of course, has been in the news again quite recently. In addition, we have just observed the tenth anniversary of 9/11,
More...
Aug 02, 2011
Jesse
rated it:
Favorite Quotes:
● "Let you go," he said bitterly. "Yes, that's the modern euphemism, isn't it? As if it's a favor. You're clinging to the edge of a cliff and someone says, 'Oh, I'm terribly sorry, we're going to have to let you go.'"
● "It's amazing how cold and darkness conspire to alter everything."
● "And what they all have in common, these bad books, be they novels or memoirs, is this: they don't ring true. I'm not More...
● "Let you go," he said bitterly. "Yes, that's the modern euphemism, isn't it? As if it's a favor. You're clinging to the edge of a cliff and someone says, 'Oh, I'm terribly sorry, we're going to have to let you go.'"
● "It's amazing how cold and darkness conspire to alter everything."
● "And what they all have in common, these bad books, be they novels or memoirs, is this: they don't ring true. I'm not More...
Jan 07, 2011
Meghan
rated it:
i don't know what to think about this book.
1.) it had kept me turning pages. i wasn't bored.
2.) the first half was interesting in the way it imagined a.) a ghostwriter's job and b.) the experience of former world leaders adjusting to life out of power.
3.) the second half was more of a conventional conspiracy/thriller/spy/detective story.
4.) as a roman-a-clef, it was easier to suspend your disbelief in the first half than in the second half. so in the first More...
1.) it had kept me turning pages. i wasn't bored.
2.) the first half was interesting in the way it imagined a.) a ghostwriter's job and b.) the experience of former world leaders adjusting to life out of power.
3.) the second half was more of a conventional conspiracy/thriller/spy/detective story.
4.) as a roman-a-clef, it was easier to suspend your disbelief in the first half than in the second half. so in the first More...
Dec 13, 2010
Boekenbuzz.nl
rated it:
Een Tony Blair-achtige voormalig premier van Engeland is zijn memoires aan het schrijven, als zijn ghostwriter op mysterieuze wijze sterft. Onze vertellende held, een andere ghostwriter, wordt ingehuurd om de klus af te maken. Maar er klopt iets niet.
Ten eerste wordt de ex-premier beschuldigd van oorlogsmisdaden, hij zou hebben bevolen dat vier verdachte terroristen gemarteld werden.
Ten tweede denkt onze held, de tweede ghostwriter dus, dat er iets vreemds is aan het concept van d More...
Ten eerste wordt de ex-premier beschuldigd van oorlogsmisdaden, hij zou hebben bevolen dat vier verdachte terroristen gemarteld werden.
Ten tweede denkt onze held, de tweede ghostwriter dus, dat er iets vreemds is aan het concept van d More...
Nov 02, 2010
Nice!
Someone told me that politic is dirty, and I probably have to say, “Yes, it is.”
Robert Harris mungkin berpikiran sama dengan saya ketika memutuskan untuk menulis The Ghostwriter. Ia memulai cerita dengan munculnya nama Michael McAra, ajudan politik Adam Lang--mantan Perdana Menteri Inggris. Lang adalah seorang yang penuh kontroversi dan semasa menjabat ia mengeluarkan keputusan-keputusan yang pada awalnya brilian, tetapi kemudian publik mulai mencium ketidakberesan. Apakah it More...
Someone told me that politic is dirty, and I probably have to say, “Yes, it is.”
Robert Harris mungkin berpikiran sama dengan saya ketika memutuskan untuk menulis The Ghostwriter. Ia memulai cerita dengan munculnya nama Michael McAra, ajudan politik Adam Lang--mantan Perdana Menteri Inggris. Lang adalah seorang yang penuh kontroversi dan semasa menjabat ia mengeluarkan keputusan-keputusan yang pada awalnya brilian, tetapi kemudian publik mulai mencium ketidakberesan. Apakah it More...
Aug 16, 2010
Brian
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Aug 02, 2010
Rowland
rated it:
In The Ghost the unnamed narrator takes on -- for very good money -- the commission to 'ghost-write' the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang -- a PM whose term in office, actions, and family situation all bear a striking resemblance to those of Tony Blair.
The narrator is a professional ghostwriter, so it's not that extraordinary that he's called in for the job, but the circumstances are unusual. The man who originally had the gig, Michael McAra, died on the job, and t More...
The narrator is a professional ghostwriter, so it's not that extraordinary that he's called in for the job, but the circumstances are unusual. The man who originally had the gig, Michael McAra, died on the job, and t More...
Mar 26, 2010
Joanne
rated it:
Read a movie review of The Ghost Writer and thought it sounded like a great story, confirmed by the idea that it's based on this book by Robert Harris, whom I've really liked (Fatherland, Enigma, Pompeii). There is no way I am going to go to a movie directed by Polanski the convicted child rapist.
Harris did not disappoint. This is a great espionage-like political thriller. Premise is that the ex-prime minister of Britain (modeled on Blair) is writing his memoirs on Martha's Vineya More...
Harris did not disappoint. This is a great espionage-like political thriller. Premise is that the ex-prime minister of Britain (modeled on Blair) is writing his memoirs on Martha's Vineya More...
Dec 30, 2010
Patrick
rated it:
I absolutely loved Harris' book ‘Pompeii’ about the last days of the city before Vesuvius got pissed and so tried ‘Ghost’ on that reputation alone. Not a fan of political thrillers I was curious to see how Harris would do. Ghost is no Pompeii,but I was pulled along by the story of a ghost writer who is hired to make deadline and quickly finish the memoirs of a charismatic British ex-Prime Minister after the previous ghost writer dies suspiciously. The British writer is out of his element in deso
More...
Sep 15, 2010
Azia
rated it:
*hadiah kuis ultah GRI ke-3*
Adam Lang, mantan perdana menteri Inggris, berniat menerbitkan autobiografi. Dia menyewa seorang penulis bayangan untuk menyelesaikan manuskrip biografinya. Sebelumnya McAra,ajudan setia dan menulis buku tersebut sebelumnya ditemukan tewas mengambang di laut. Penulis bayangan tersebut dengan bayaran 250.000 dollar diberikan waktu 1 bulan untuk menyelesaikan buku tersebut.
Adam Lang dihadapkan pada tuduhan serius, menyerahkan empat warga negara More...
Adam Lang, mantan perdana menteri Inggris, berniat menerbitkan autobiografi. Dia menyewa seorang penulis bayangan untuk menyelesaikan manuskrip biografinya. Sebelumnya McAra,ajudan setia dan menulis buku tersebut sebelumnya ditemukan tewas mengambang di laut. Penulis bayangan tersebut dengan bayaran 250.000 dollar diberikan waktu 1 bulan untuk menyelesaikan buku tersebut.
Adam Lang dihadapkan pada tuduhan serius, menyerahkan empat warga negara More...
May 23, 2010
Jon
rated it:
I admired Conspirata so much (by the same author) that I decided to try this one, apparently written between that book and Imperium, the two about Cicero. This one is about a popular, now former, prime minister of England, who was driven from office for being a lap-dog of the Americans during the war in Iraq. Sound familiar? The ghost of the title is the first-person narrator, who has been hired to "ghost" the PM's memoirs, after his first ghostwriter has died under mysterious circumst
More...
Jun 02, 2011
Kate
rated it:
Well written in the first person, with the humour adding to the story rather than detracting from it. The twists in the story were interesting, and I did not anticipate some of them. Overall a good, quick read.
'The moment I heard how McAra died I should have walked away. I can see that now...'
The narrator of Robert Harris' gripping new novel is a professional ghostwriter - cynical, mercenary, and with a nice line in deadpan humour. Accustomed to working with fading roc More...
'The moment I heard how McAra died I should have walked away. I can see that now...'
The narrator of Robert Harris' gripping new novel is a professional ghostwriter - cynical, mercenary, and with a nice line in deadpan humour. Accustomed to working with fading roc More...
Oct 08, 2011
Blair
rated it:
The Ghost is famous for being a roman à clef about the life of Tony Blair following his tenure as prime minister. It's told from the perspective of a nameless ghostwriter of celebrity autobiographies who is drafted in to edit the memoirs of the Blair figure, ex-PM Adam Lang, after the apparent suicide of Mike McAra, an aide who was assisting with the book. Lang is holed up in a mansion in Martha's Vineyard, surrounded by security and a host of associates, including his wife Ruth (a Cherie Blair
More...
Jan 16, 2010
Steffi
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Jul 31, 2010
Arun
rated it:
My infatuation with political thrillers and the so-called conspiracies in high places began with Robert Ludlum's Bourne Trilogy which i read when i was practically jobless around 5 years ago. This was followed by a frenzy of such books from Ludlum to Forsyth to Brad Thor and one fine day as I was reading a Gerald Seymour book, I finally looked up and said "WTF".Just like a switch thrown off, i stopped reading the political thriller. Recently I found Robert Harris and his book "Fat
More...
