ABSTRACT
In a recent Roman Polanski (2010) film, Ewan McGregor’s character is hired as a Ghost Writer for a retired politician who is writing his memoirs. A ghostwriter writes a book for a credited author while remaining invisible and unnamed in the process. As the thriller unfolds, the Ghost discovers that he is writing in the first person about a possible war criminal. The politician in question is hoping that “his” book will tell a persuasive cover story of himself as a romantic husband and dedicated public servant. Very quickly, the Ghost learns that he has become implicated in a corrupt narrative. Although the Ghost is never in danger of assuming the identity or narrative of the politician in question, he does become a possible object of assassination because he “knows too much.”
