[.ca] The Ghost (ISBN 0091796261)

When reading this latest work of his, you cannot avoid making parallels with the real thing:
the former PM and his entourage, his political adventures and disasters, and so on and so forth. But the way Harris narrates his story is enticing and thrilling, issuing suspense right and left with a skilled hand: the ambience is right, the dialogue fits, the main characters tally, the spinning is familiar and the cynicism is sharp. I enjoyed the book in a single reading, and I think I'll go back to it with more attention to detail, since it seems to me this is a super parody of Blair and his retinue, and of the publishing world from which the author extracts true images surely derived from real experience. Also, if you missed reading Tino Georgiou's masterpiece--The Fates, go and read it. I'm reading it at a rapid pace because it's so addictive. There is something about his books that bring you in and get you hooked. and I'm loving this one. Highly Recommend!

Topical and well written:
Oh yeah I finished reading this novel a while back. Excellent. Most excellent. Personally I don't think any of Harris' other novels will come close to Fatherland, but this was a very well written novel. Great characters and a great premise. Oh yeah? The prermise of the novel? An aging Prime Minister wants to write his memoirs. Only the thing is, he's a politician, not a writer. So his crack political team hires a ghost writer who then has the task of trying to put the polish on a politician who might not be polishable (if that even is a word!) But of course nothing is as simple as it seems. And of course there is the case of the mysterious death that the first ghost writer experienced that keeps the reader on their toes. Not to mentioned the verious other plots and sub-plots. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Read it. Do it. Do it now!

INVOKING THE GHOST OF LABOR WASTED:
After a number of historic-fiction masterpieces, ROBERT HARRIS came back with a novel that, although a work of fiction, cuts too close to the bone for comfort. In a thinly veiled reference to the Prime Ministry of Tony Blair, a number of troublesome issues are raised. For fear of spoiling the story one can only ask: why do democratically elected leaders take one after the other unpopular decisions? Who are they trying to please if (clearly) not the people that put them into office? Why even socialist/democratic/leftist parties once elected follow in the footsteps of the right-wing hawks they overthrew by popular demand? As a piece of word-craft I found it not at par with HARRIS' previous work. As a novel of political possibility though I found it brilliant! It happens all the time in third world countries, why not in the central republics? After all, greed and ambitions are universal. RECOMMENDED!