Enter Ghost
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LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024
Reeling from a disastrous love affair, actress Sonia Nasir finds love and hope in Shakespeare and Palestine.
‘A vital storyteller’
ALI SMITH
After years away from her family’s homeland, and reeling from a disastrous love affair, actress Sonia Nasir returns to Haifa to visit her older sister Haneen. On her arrival, she finds her relationship to Palestine is fragile, both bone-deep and new.
When Sonia meets the charismatic Mariam, a local director, she joins a production of Hamlet in the West Bank. Soon, Sonia is rehearsing with a dedicated, if competitive, group of men – yet as opening night draws closer, it becomes clear just how many obstacles stand before the troupe. Amidst it all, the life she once knew starts to give way to the exhilarating possibility of finding a new self in her ancestral home.
‘A novel to savour’
SUNDAY TIMES
‘Captivating…deeply moving’
HARPER’S BAZAAR
‘Powerful… Hammad is a pretty flawless writer’
THE TIMES
A GRANTA BEST YOUNG BRITISH NOVELIST
- A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST AND VULTURE *
Latest reviews
Enter Ghost, what a thrill of a read. Felt like an authentic telling, loved the Atwood style ending. The Hamlet play in a book made me want to read Hamlet. Loved that it a female first story and that men were minor characters. Page 195 into 196 "When bad things happen...." will really stay with me. The sign off to Harold's email (Page 314) was a perfect piece of writing. It made the news of Palestine real, especially with the story of Um Rashid. I haven't read any of the other shortlisted authors this year but this book is very worthy of the prize.
Enter Ghost, what a thrill of a read. Felt like an authentic telling, loved the Atwood style ending. The Hamlet play in a book made me want to read Hamlet. Loved that it a female first story and that men were minor characters. Page 195 into 196 "When bad things happen...." will really stay with me. The sign off to Harold's email (Page 314) was a perfect piece of writing. It made the news of Palestine real, especially with the story of Um Rashid. I haven't read any of the other shortlisted authors this year but this book is very worthy of the prize.
Incredible. I loved the links to Shakespeare and Hamlet with the Palestinian backdrop.
Loved the layers in this book. Enter Ghost is the story of an actress who intends to spend the summer visiting her sister a university prof. But is persuaded to join a production of Hamlet. Loving theatre but never being part of it i enjoyed the window into the drama of backstage. And a great device for illustrating the challenge of everyday life in Palestine and Israel. Heartbreakingly now a war zone. Deeper Enter Ghost captures the complexity of family and female relationships. Deeper still identity the constraints and perceptions of. Highly recommend
Not my thing at all but fans of Hamlet might like it. The Shakespeare play is used to tell us what daily life is like for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, so that was the interesting part, the rest of it less so.
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