Robert Harris: The Ghost

I haven’t read any Robert Harris before, but this (Christmas present) was a very good read.

The ‘ghost’ is a ghostwriter with no political interest who finds himself with a huge contract to write the autobiography of the former British prime minister, Adam Lang, a lightly adapted version of Tony Blair with a wife similar to Cherie Blair. This involves spending time in Martha’s Vineyard in winter. Lang is facing prosecution at the ICC for his part in deporting terrorists who were tortured.

It’s a page-turner, it carries its research into ghosting and the American setting lightly, and above all it’s rather sparely written – a pleasure to read every sentence. Out in German too, and the English version is a paperback now (I got the hardback).

amazon.de
English paperback: Ghost
German hardback (translated by Wolfgang Müller): Ghost

6 thoughts on “Robert Harris: The Ghost

  1. I think, in that youtube-clip it says he worked as “a mobile phone salesman”. So maybe he is even a T-Mobile-Employee?

    • Yes, it irritates me too. The shots of Potts etc. are great TV, but less so the way they are threaded together with fake little scenes of people ‘communicating’ with each other. I suppose it’s meant to burn some magenta into our subconscious.

  2. I guess you’re right: Tribunal seems to have a somewhat “less than legal” ring to it. No wonder the sham courts that were going on in Guantanamo were called military tribunals.

    The only instance where I might use it for translation from German would be things like the Anwaltsgericht or Berufsgericht f

    • Yes, a professional disciplinary tribunal

      Of course, the term tribunal on its own can refer to any kind of court. And the reason they were called military tribunals is presumably the same reason the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal was referred to that way.

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