If anyone here plays the trivia game Learned League, today (July 16) there’s a one-day on David Mitchell’s novels! Check it out!

I’m rereading Ghostwritten and can’t believe I’ve never made the connection between character Margarita Latunsky and one of my favorite novels, Mikhail Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita. Margarita is, obviously, one of the titular protagonists and Latunsky is the hated literary critic (echoed in Cloud Atlas’s Felix Finch?) upon whom Margarita visits revenge.

Does anyone know if this naming was deliberate? And whether Mitchell is a fan of Master and Margarita?

Mitchell or otherwise. Simultaneously a rollicking collegiate satire, unnerving glimpse into a sociopath’s brain, sweet love story and finally a tragedy. Filled with some of Mitchell’s funniest lines — clearly he had a blast writing it.

"Bat Macumba" is an influential (and kick-butt) psychedelic/tropicália song by the Brazilian group Os Mutantes, recorded in 1968. In Utopia Ave., Bat Segundo is a London DJ who introduces the psychedelic "Dark Room" to the world in 1968.

Yes, Bat Segundo was created twenty years earlier for Ghostwritten, where he was an American (I think?) character living in 1999. Also, I found zero mention of this connection on the internet (noting my Google-fu is weak).

But it was the first thing I thought of when I read the name, so I have to wonder...is Mitchell a Tropicália fan???

I posted 16 days ago a recommendation I got to read Cloud Atlas, and even though I bounced on it many years back, your praise got me to stick with it this time; and glad I did! Not sure if my review/reactions are gonna be all that exciting, but figure I owe it to the group to say thanks and let you know how it went...

Overall, 4.5 - 5 stars. I need to let it sit with me for more than 24hrs, because I think it's one of those reads that's gonna "worm" its way into my mind (apologies to Adam Ewing) over time. The only hesitation I have on 5 stars is: (1) it is a bit slow, there were parts of stories here or there that I did wanna get past, and (2) I thought the "connections" between the stories would be clearer... or it would all crash land into me at the end... but, I do believe the subtle nature here is why it'll ultimately stick with me, require some digging/research, and grow my love for it long term. We'll see!

In terms of the stories themselves, if I had to order them in terms of preference I'd go...

1. "The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish" -- I was simultaneously in tears of laughter, and sadness. The writing/voice here is just so incredible. The wit... that scene where he's trying to get a train ticket had my in stitches. And at the same time the commentary on age/elderly hits hard.
2. "Letters from Zedelghem" -- A dark horse story for me, especially being a scifi/fantasy nerd normally... but yet again I loved the character, the charm, and ultimately the sadness of it.
3. "Sloosha's Crossin' an' Everything After" -- Maybe? The language here is hard, but the audiobook helped, and ultimately the plot of this one is pretty compelling. And again the character of Zachary (?) is somehow quite lovable.
4. "The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing" -- Hard to parse at times given the era, but I could see this being anywhere from my 2nd favorite to my 4th... hard to read at times, but ultimately an incredible message and does do a good job of pulling the whole book together.
5. "An Orison of Sonmi-451" -- I love scifi, so not sure what happened here, but just felt long... and the structure of answering questions from an archivist maybe left it feeling a little flat? Or Sonmi-451 not having much emotion (as intended)?
6. "Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery" -- Def the one that dragged the most for me... just felt really boilerplate.

Okay, alas, this post is longer than the novel I claim to be too long! So I'll just add that I haven't done any research/no influence from any posts yet, and I imagine once I read more in the subreddit I'll be convinced different ways (so consider this a "fresh" take). Anyways, appreciate the push to power through, overall really loved it, and (for better or worse..) off to watch the movie now and see how that compares!

This might be the most convincing pitch I’ve gotten to read Cloud Atlas, at long last I’m gonna do it. You guys agree with the rec? Anyone read recently?

Cheers!

Does anyone have any more recent updates since the “sometime maybe September 2026” that was floated around last year?

And any updates on the potential name, last I read it was provisionally called “To Vinland”?

I assumed the signature in Slade House was just printed along with the book. Once I turned the page I realised it wasn't

I think we're all aware of the two different versions of Cloud Atlas and Number9Dream out there.

Does anyone know if there are different versions of some of his other novels as well?

In TBC, Xi Lo told Marinus as Klara Koskov that:

They had used an Act of Suasion to persuade Shiroyama to end Enomoto’s reign. Poison. Regrettably, it cost the magistrate his life, but such was the arithmetic of sacrifice. My turn will come, one day.

But then in Utopia Avenue, Yu Leon Marinus says:

Governor Shiroyama – the samurai in this frieze – learned about Enomoto’s infanticidal regime. He devised a plot to decapitate the order by poisoning its powerful abbot. Enomoto was wisely paranoid about poison, so the plot required both the governor and his secretary to consume the toxin, too.

Why is this link strong enough, asks Esther, to draw Enomoto’s soul halfway across the city at the moment of death? Marinus selects his words. Jacob de Zoet, an interpreter named Ogawa and I each played a part in bringing Enomoto’s crimes to the attention of Governor Shiroyama. From Abbot Enomoto’s point of view – they look at the dead cleric – we were accomplices in his murder.

Is Marinus just omitting his colleagues' involvement for some reason or is this an inconsistency/plothole?

I started with space house because I just wanted a crazy house boom - this evolved into Ghost written, number9 cloud atlas and now BWG.

I’m struggling to get through this as I love the other for having that sci-fi element that I love. (besides number9 but I skimmed basically the last 20 pages).

Can someone hint if there is a payoff other than a cute coming of age story? Are there important details that tie together in bone clocks? I’m pausing this for another book now because I need a break and I’m just not having fun with it.

I read Cloud Atlas (one of my all time favorites), Bone Clocks (found it a bit meandering and struggling for a point, but enjoyed the ride), and Slade House (had no idea what it was about when I picked it and really enjoyed it without reservations). I finally grabbed Ghostwritten and was riveted through the first chapters. I read the back of the book and when I saw "noncorpum" I thought, "oh boy, Marinus and those other atemporal scamps are about to pull some hijinks!".

I was enjoying Mitchell's prose which is always superb, but there was this nagging feeling like I was just continually eating the first tasting at a three Michelin Star restaurant. Exquisite, but I was ready to move on to the main course. After Mongolia finished up I thought the setups were going to payoffs, but they just kinda didn't. When two characters reflect on turning points and how "everything after" wouldn't have happened, you expect them to be talking about plot shit, but I think "everything that came after" was referring to the fact that they were going to go on and have lives that we, the audience, occasionally see glimpses of.

I get that characters cross between stories and do little things that have big effects on the other stories we're reading. Culty McCulterson phones Jazzy Boi, making him be at his shop to fall in love and run away with Dream Girl so that Divorcee can see them make goo goo eyes at each other and decide to call it a night instead of going back to work and die-abetes climbing a hill so gold digging cleaning lady grand daughter of Tea Queen (my favorite chapter) can have enough money to visit her on her death bed and be serene enough to travel back in time to give her child self some choice advice tidbits so that she can play host to Ghosty McGhosterson for a bit before going on a zany journey of self discovery including a train level where she bonds with Science Lady over speaking english and gets her to relax enough to invent Chill SkyNet (or maybe it was the other ghost, A-Dawg, who caused the founding of Culty McCulterson's cult) who goes on to prevent human extinction by preventing the nukes from flying ahead of a comet which may or may not kill all mankind.

I get it, connection and lots of it, but what does it mean beyond, "these peoples' stories overlap and doesn't that really make you think?" What do these connections say? In Cloud Atlas, the overlap was not incidental. The characters were knowingly affected by each other across time and medium, but in Ghostwritten, stuff just kinda happens. It just felt like it wasn't enough.

Someone help! Convince me I'm not actually as frustrated as I am!

This was a fascinating book, moreso in structure than in content, but the content is also thought-provoking. It was quite a melancholy book, as we grow close to this character Holly in the first story, and then only witness her from a distance here and there for most of the rest of the book and see all of the unfortunate stuff happen to her.

The Hugo Lamb chapter was truly fascinating to me and I thought contained some of the best thoughts and lines in the book. I thought it solidified the type of person who could become one of these immortal beings.

I also like the Holly-Hugo connection. It felt very much like a natural relationship. It was nice a little surprise seeing how she softened him up, and even though they didn’t end up together (better for her for sure) I liked how his little speech influenced her to stop blaming herself, and to get a job helping other people. I would have liked a little more on them, but the note towards the end of the book when Marinus is going through her memories sticks out to me:

Look, a glimpse of Hugo Lamb … Stop. Their night in a room in a Swiss ski town, which is none of my business, but what muffled, baffled joy shines in the young man’s eyes. He loved her, too. But the Anchorites came knocking. Fateful or fated? Scripted, Counterscripted?

I would like to see this character in the future, and from what it sounds like we might.

One other question: did Holly love Hugo back? Seems Mitchell left this purposely ambiguous. By the time we get to hear Holly talk about him, it’s 30 years later but we don’t know how she felt at the time

Some time ago bought 1000 autumns(just because I liked its cover lol). Now only Black swan green and number9dream left to read, and waiting for upcoming book for sure.

I didn't expect to love this novel so much in the beginning. But it's just gets better and better. Loved the ending, the characters, the structure, all of it..

What are your favorite chapters, sequences and characters of the book?

The NEW novel (still without title) by DM is DELAYED until AUGUST next year, but we already have a brief SYNOPSIS👀

So I’m rereading all of Mitchell’s books and in Number 9 Dream Eiji meets a woman on a bus who tells him she’s a witch who eats dreams. When this book first came out it was like oh okay a weird old lady.

But now I think she’s a real witch who eats dreams! Do you? Why shouldn’t she be?

12 years later, still this mystery is unsolved. How does the ghost travel though the story... does anyone have insight? Can AI solve this puzzle?

https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1rx4h1/does_anyone_understand_ghostwritten_and_can/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Edit: There seems to be skepticism about the hypothesis that each chapter is written by a ghost.

If you read the Nighttrain chapter carefully, this is where it all comes together. That’s the moment when the separate chapters resolve into a single, coherent story.

Towards the end, Zookeeper concedes that Arupadhatu is a ghost and asks how many others there are.

Arupadhatu replies:

“Five that I’ve encountered, Zookeeper. Three others that I’ve heard of.”

That gives us eight ghosts in total.

Now consider the structure:

• The title of the book is "Ghostwritten"
• There are eight earlier chapters.
• One of them is explicitly written by a ghost in first-person.
• The ninth chapter consists only of digital communications, transcribed by Zookeeper.

That alignment is intentional.

Then Arupadhatu continues:

“They squander their gift. They transmigrate into human chaff for hosts, and meditate upon nothingness upon mountains.”

He’s referring to the other ghosts — the ones who have written the earlier chapters. They “transmigrate into human chaff for hosts” by inhabiting characters and narrating their lives, without overtly inserting themselves into the text.

In other words, the earlier chapters are those ghosts meditating through their human hosts.

His first novel was also my first of his. I highly enjoyed it - almost a masterpiece and was very immersed with it (as you can see with my notes) - but for me the ending was kinda dissapointing.

What are your favorite sections of it?

I loved the Hong Kong, Holy Mountain, Petersburg, Mongolia chapters and all the connections within it. Also Tokyo/London was so much fun to read. Felt a bit like Murakami.

As I mentioned, the last chapters Clear Island, Night Train and Underground very a bit of a letdown.

Very curious about your thoughts and excited for the next ones. Is it good to just go with his books chronologically?

Hey guys - I am new to David Mitchell, but wondering..

How would you rank all of his novels?

(I am about to finish Ghostwritten - no spoiler pls)

I felt pretty disappointed by this book but it seems a lot of people love it. I thought the structure was unique and found each story interesting but I guess I’m just disappointed with how they were tied together. I don’t really understand the point of the reincarnation here, it doesn’t seem to have played a big part. Maybe I’m not understanding it correctly because it was kind of hard to remember certain things due to the way the structure was laid out. I loved Bone Clocks and I really liked Slade House and even Utopia Avenue but I would consider Cloud Atlas my least favorite David Mitchell I’ve read so far.