The Ghostwriter

“Their stories uncovered parts of myself that had always been there—my father’s intensity. My mother’s insecurity. My aunt’s fire, and my uncle’s charisma.

But as a ghostwriter—a person who listens to other people’s stories and spins them into a narrative—I understand now how very hard it is to discover what someone has chosen to conceal. And when they die, their secrets get buried in time until there’s no one around to remember them.”

The events in the foreword take place after the events of the novel, foreshadowing Olivia’s discoveries over the course of her work on the book. In this passage, she establishes that her discoveries are tied to the qualities she has inherited from her family. By stressing that this includes dark secrets, Olivia establishes two of the novel’s major themes, The Personal Cost of Secrets and The Cycle of Inherited Trauma.

“I love the anonymity of ghostwriting, the ability to slip into someone else’s skin and inhabit their life just long enough to tell a good story. No one can see who I am or remember who my father is. I’m an invisible hand on the page instead of the name on the cover.”

Olivia’s avoidant personality underpins her motivation for her career choice. By inhabiting the lives of her writing subjects, she can escape the difficult truths of her life. She alludes to this when she mentions that ghostwriting stops people from remembering her relation to her father. This implies the negative impact that being Vincent’s daughter has on her life.

“Because this book has to be a ruse; my father has been churning out novels for decades, and he certainly doesn’t need my help to do it. I will view it as a necessary evil to move past this phase of my life—to stave off the overdraft notices arriving almost daily on my phone. To pay what I owe to both John Calder and my attorney. And perhaps to also get some closure with a man who has been virtually unknown to me my entire life.”

In this passage, Olivia states her objectives and the obstacles that keep her from accomplishing them. She needs to escape debt and seek closure from her estranged father, but her major obstacle is the possibility that Vincent is planning to harm her. This fear reduces the chances that she may ever obtain closure and positions Vincent as an