Ghostwritten

Something has to be said for reading an author's works in chronological order according to when they were written. Having already read Cloud Atlas, I picked up a second hand copy of Ghostwritten to read on my holiday. Ghostwritten is written in a similar style to Cloud Atlas (or should that be the other way round?) in that the novel is several stories that flow in and out of each other. In each new section there will be at least one link to a previous story, whether this be the main character literally bumping into a character from another story, reading about another character in a newspaper article etc. What made it confusing for me is that characters that appear in Cloud Atlas appear in Ghostwritten; for me it was like hearing the mention of an old friend in passing, but ofcourse had I read the books in chronological order, I wouldn't have realised the link. But then again, maybe I wouldn't have picked it out if I had read Cloud Atlas second, as the characters in question are far from major characters in Ghostwritten. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book, but would have to point out that the links made throughout this book are not as subtle as the thread that flows through Cloud Atlas. My favourite section was the one that followed the story of the ghost or spirit which transmigrated from person to person. What an interesting idea, and possibly a premise for a longer book!