Ghost

July 9, 2007
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 Under
crew, 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.

Starred review from September 1, 2007
With a physicists understanding of theuniverse and an artists embrace of lifes mysteries, Lightman writes suspenseful metaphysical novels featuring protagonists who believe in empiricism and order yet find themselves derailed by the inexplicable. His latest lost-in-the-cosmos hero is content with life until his wife leaves him and he abruptly loses his bank job. David then answers an ad for an apprentice at a mortuary. Initially repelled by the embalming practice, hesoon finds himself soothed by the ambience of the old funeral home and comforted by the dedication of thedirector. But then David sees something impossible, and before he even dares think the word ghost, rumors travel far and wide of his allegedly supernatural sighting. Lightmancreates an irresistible cast of perfectly limnedzealots and skeptics as David is besieged by people desperate to contact lost loved ones, reporters eager for a story, determined envoys from a paranormal society, and incensed scientists. Satirical and compassionate, Lightmans brilliantly orchestrated and gripping taledramatizes our marshaling of fear, fantasy, and faith as we confrontthe unknown and the inevitable. At base, all we can truly trust, Lightman suggests, is wonder and kindness.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)