Overview
Alan Lightman’s first novel, Einstein’s Dreams, became an international best seller and was hailed by Salman Rushdie as “at once intellectually provocative and touching and comic and so very beautifully written.” His novel The Diagnosis, called “highly original and imaginative” by the New York Times, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Now comes a stunning and disturbing new novel about a man’s encounter with the unfathomable.David is a person of modest ambitions who works in a bank, lives in a rooming house, enjoys books and quiet walks by the lake. Three months after unexpectedly being fired from his job, he takes a temporary position at a mortuary. And there, sitting alone in the “slumber room” one afternoon at dusk, he sees something that he cannot comprehend, something that no science can explain, something that will force him to question everything he believes in, including himself. After his metaphysical experience, all his relationships change-—with his estranged wife, his girlfriend, his mother--and he grudgingly finds himself at the center of a bitter public controversy over the existence of the supernatural. As David struggles to understand what has happened to him, we embark on a provocative exploration of the delicate divide between the physical world and the spiritual world, between skepticism and faith, between the natural and the supernatural, and between science and religion.
Combining a dramatic story with compelling characters and provocative ideas, Ghost investigates timeless questions that continue to challenge contemporary society.
Synopsis
A stunning new novel about an ordinary man's encounter with the extraordinary, from the author of Einstein's Dreams.David Kurzweil, a quiet man with modest ambitions, was taking a break at his new job, when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Something no science could explain. Suddenly David's life is changed, and he soon finds himself in the middle of a wild public controversy over the existence of the supernatural. As David searches for an explanation, we embark on a provocative exploration of the delicate divide between the physical and the spiritual, between science and religion as only Alan Lightman could provide. Combining a beautiful narrative with provocative ideas, Ghost investigates timeless questions that continue to challenge the truth as we know it.
The Washington Post - Ron Charles
Ghost is by no means the scariest supernatural tale you could read on Halloween—King is still king—but it may be the smartest, and for that reason it ends up being a hell of a lot more unsettling than a horde of flesh-eating zombies… philosophical questions about the nature of reality hover over all [Lightman's] work…and now in his fifth novel, he concentrates on the most fundamental issues of epistemology without ever using any off-putting terms like, say, "epistemology." Instead, Lightman explores the liminal state between knowledge and belief in an eerily quiet ghost story…These are heavy questions, to be sure, the kind of philosophical conundrums that might fuel a provocative all-night discussion in the dorm but usually doom a novel. The salvation here is Lightman's graceful touch and his tender insight into David's plight.
Editorials
Ed Park
Lightman, who for many years taught both physics and writing at M.I.T. (where he's currently an adjunct professor of humanities), remains best known for Einstein's Dreams, a delicately Calvino-esque treatment of a genius on the verge of a historic discovery. But his more recent novels—The Diagnosis, Reunion and now Ghost—make up a trilogy of malaise and rue that seems the more substantial achievement.—The New York Times
Ron Charles
Ghost is by no means the scariest supernatural tale you could read on Halloween—King is still king—but it may be the smartest, and for that reason it ends up being a hell of a lot more unsettling than a horde of flesh-eating zombies… philosophical questions about the nature of reality hover over all [Lightman's] work…and now in his fifth novel, he concentrates on the most fundamental issues of epistemology without ever using any off-putting terms like, say, "epistemology." Instead, Lightman explores the liminal state between knowledge and belief in an eerily quiet ghost story…These are heavy questions, to be sure, the kind of philosophical conundrums that might fuel a provocative all-night discussion in the dorm but usually doom a novel. The salvation here is Lightman's graceful touch and his tender insight into David's plight.—The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
In this smartly paced novel from the author of Einstein's Dreams, a divorced, former banker witnesses a supernatural event, inspiring him to continue the "search for something" that has hovered in the back of his mind throughout his life. A promising, handsome student in his younger years, middle-aged David struggles to restore order to his life and relationships after being sacked from his middling bank job. The search leads him to the local funeral home, where he takes a job as an apprentice among a cast less hip than the Six Feet Undercrew, but compelling in a quieter way-the director, Martin, is a fatherly figure whose allegiance to his inherited profession rules an existence otherwise restricted by severe agoraphobia. After David has a vision he "can't describe in words" in the home's "slumber room," he gets agitated to the point where he is compelled to confess to a loose-lipped friend. Soon, David's vision becomes a local media event, with unwanted consequences. Familiar questions about the existence of God, life after death and the fluidity of time arise, and the cast doesn't get the detail it deserves. But the momentum that builds alongside David's ensuing psychological turmoil is enough to carry the story. (Oct.)
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