The Ghosts of Nagasaki

By Daniel Clausen

One night a foreign business analyst in Tokyo sits down in his spacious high rise apartment and begins typing something. The words pour out and exhaust him. He soon realizes that the words appearing on his laptop are memories of his first days in Nagasaki four years ago.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IndieReader
• Release date: Aug 27, 2012
• ISBN: 9781478314479

Book preview

Reviews for The Ghosts of Nagasaki

[larissabookgirl_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

From memories comes monsters from childhood, a dragon from misspent days and a girl in red shoes. With a stone for a heart and a host of friends, enemies and others to haunt him, this is a journey across time, through sea and over land to discover life, love and a brand new heart. .The Ghosts Of Nagasaki recounts the past from memories real and re-imagined. When faced with returning to the scene of his youth, the memories and ghosts of the those he once knew invade his present, all in an effort to make sense of a life unlived and unfulfilled. A refreshing and entertaining story that is not to be read lightly.

[zoes_human · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Imagine if you will, that instead of Alice, Holden Caulfield went through the looking glass seeking not his missing kitten but his missing heart. Imagine further that this entire episode of ... madness? ... magic? ... were to be orchestrated by David Lynch. This would then be something akin to The Ghosts of Nagasaki.It is lovely and disorienting and full of beautiful, dream-like prose.

[epweil · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A beautifully compelling, poetically written exorcism of the heart.

[bearlyr · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Honestly, it took me awhile to realize this was a journey through a persons soul. Once I did, though, I became genuinely invested in the outcome. Although a bit of a slow starter, this book had me fully in the stories grip. It was, at times, a bizarre story... but always interesting.

[hubblegal-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a magical, mystical journey this book takes the reader on! As others have said, this book's not for everyone and is not a light, easy read. I at first thought it wasn't a very long book but it ended up taking me longer than usual to read because I had to stop, think, look back, read a paragraph or two again to appreciate what it was saying. Daniel Clausen was kind enough to send me a copy of his book for a review after reading the books I had listed on my reading list on Goodreads as he thought his book would be something I would like. He definitely knows how to pick his readers. I very seldom buy books, depending on the library due to my greediness for reading, but now I have "The Ghosts of Nagasaki" in my home to pick up again and savor the story all over. I know each reading will disclose thoughts that I missed the first time around.This book allows you to suspend all disbelief and to open up your mind to all possibilities. You'll meet a vast assortment of characters, many ghosts, an apostate, a samurai, even a dragon. The only character I found unbelievable was the doctor who didn't want to be paid for his services. Just kidding - he was believable, too. There's even a mysterious island. This book is so unusual and nothing like you've read before. Keep reading and you'll be drawn into this young man's life and his friends will become yours and you'll truly care about what happens to them. I had emotional tears in my eyes during the last two chapters and these characters and this story will remain with me for a long time to come. Thank you, Daniel, for giving me this chance to read your marvelous book.

[harrywhitewolf · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I think I've just found my new favourite author. At one point in Nagasaki Ghosts, the protagonist is asked “So, you like to write?” To which he replies, “No, I desperately want to quit, but I can’t.” I have a feeling the author may have been talking about himself there, because this book reeks of an idea that was germinated and accumulated in a prose confused head until it eventually forced the writer to put pen to paper. (Or finger to key). And, for me, that's the secret of a great writer: they don't actually choose to write in the first place.It's almost like The Rum Diary (or even Three Men In A Boat, humour-banter-wise) at the start, only in the set up of the wonder of being in a foreign land with big money is in reality mostly drunken nights out with the immediate company you keep; in this case the much loved, frank speaking Welshman who compliments and sometimes completes the main character. The banter comes fast, the laughs rise themselves from the page and infect the reader, and there's a sheer joy at reading Clausen's distinctive and often poetic prose, with sharp insights and killer skills of weaving a good story.I'm sure most readers will hanker on to those first weeks with the Welshman, but it's not long before this book builds and strays into stranger and wilder territories. When the ghosts appear, that's when the story really takes off. But what's meant by ghosts? The ghosts of the protagonist's orphan and foster family childhood, the ghosts in his head, the ghosts of books and writers coming to life, a girl with red shoes, a most adorable Welsh dragon, the... perhaps everyone and everything's a ghost. And perhaps the ghosts in his head only manifest themselves because he's in a land where ghosts exist more, because of the Japanese spiritual attitudes of the place. Time ceases to be linear. It's more Incan in origin, where the past and present run parallel. But actually, just forget all that. This is just one man's story. The boundaries of reality don't matter by the end. The island where hearts are grown is real enough in the purifying tale of this man in Japan.At times I felt like I was reading Are You Experienced? At other times I was absorbed in a Hundred Years of Solitude and Famished Road type world. The blend of humour, metaphysical magic and emotional journeys was mixed just right for this reader. I mean, you even get philosophy from Kermit The Frog in this book. Buy it now.Harry Whitewolf (Author of Route Number 11 and The Road To Purification).

[coledavis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My general guideline for awarding 5 stars is that the book is either an outstanding read, with very few irritants, or a very good read with inimitable content. This meets both criteria: it is a very smooth read, at times quite brilliant. The smoothness in particular pertains to metamorphosis in the book. For me, the brilliance is in the humour that runs like a rich vein through a book which deals with mental suffering.Perhaps the most effective contrapuntal novel since Flann O’Brien’s At Swim-Two-Birds, the author describes occupational alienation, the feelings of hopelessness of the damaged person and the tensions involved in caring and not being cared for. These themes are interweaved between the narrator’s roaring times in language schools and more sober times in business, themselves punctuated by ghosts and avatars of the past. With a wealth of characters, the recipe is seasoned with hearing voices, fear of bureaucrats, conversation classes, girls in red shoes and a marine crucifixion.Religious persecution and other aspects of historical and contemporary Japan provide a richness to this book. Japan is not just described by the western narrator, but finds itself under assault by drunken lecherous English teachers. For me, the humour to be uncovered in great dirty veins makes this book unbeatable. Sometimes this appears in the scurrilous comments of the debauched Welsh teacher of English (and yes, he has an avatar of some considerable style), at other times the narrator’s comments. The contrapuntal aspect is perhaps reified by the comment on the ghosts, “simple people who want to move on with their afterlives”.

[david_david_katzman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Brilliant. What a great, surprising read. Clausen is another self-published author who makes me proud to be a self-published author. I would put The Ghosts of Nagasaki up on the shelf next to any renowned modern literary work. Well, except for that damned print-on-demand glossy cover. I despise the aesthetic of the default glossy cover. But everything between the pages, ah, that’s another story! Literally.

The ghosts of the The Ghosts of Nagasaki are both memories and more than memories. Are they literal ghosts? Within the context of this story, it’s hard to judge. As seems to make sense for ghosts, these figures live in an ambiguous state between metaphors and literal occurrences, between reality and the hallucinations of a schizophrenic. By their very existence(!) within the story, The Ghosts of Nagasaki calls attention to the falsity of “real” in fiction. Even in the most realistic of fiction, story elements that are supposed to be taken at face value are nothing more than artistic devices invented by the author. The most realistic character is a layered painting of a person created to exist in our imagination. And the ghosts of this story are similar. Created as literary devices and “real characters” at the same time that our main character has an ambiguous relationship with: he believes in them, he doesn’t. He rejects them; he embraces them. It’s the push and pull of both memory and fiction.

The Ghosts of Nagasaki is personal. Almost embarrassingly intimate in revealing the pained heart of our main character. It’s not a “grand narrative” as they call those big, sweeping stories; it lives close to the heart of the main character yet feels universal in the way it speaks to loss, loneliness, intimacy, and love. The narrative is so close to the main character that sometimes it even feels claustrophobic—an effective emotional representation of the experience of the main character. It does get a little bit repetitive at times, repeating certain words and phrases, repeating similar experiences for the main character—which I found to help create a ghostly hypnotic quality to the story. Admittedly, some might find these elements a bit … repetitive, but for me they served a valid purpose. The main character was reliving his “sins” or failings or memories over and over again. He was trapped by the past, by his ghosts.

The language in The Ghosts of Nagasaki is quite strong and sophisticated. Clausen managed to be both vibrant and intellectual in his choices without being showy or precious. And there were even some parts featuring my favorite character, the Welsh roommate, that were hilarious. The roommate added some needed levity to the emotional torment of the main character.

Clausen caught me off-guard with the psychological twists that hit toward the end of the book. Subtle shifts that I didn’t see coming. Did I fully understand the ending? I think so. I’m not sure. I believe I got it. But, again, I think the ambiguity is wholly appropriate. Define the elements too much, and it takes away from the reader’s imagination and investigation of the text. It asks more of the reader, to connect the dots. The ambiguity may frustrate some readers, but frustration is one aspect of a great work. The reader learns how to bring something of their own to the table. After all, this is a literary book not a commercial no-brain beach read. Highly recommended.

Full disclosure: I have become Goodreads friends with Daniel Clausen, and we have purchased and reviewed each other’s books. I guarantee this review was not biased by personal connection. Or your money back. For reading this. Which is free. Anyway.

[slavenrm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Like I’ve said many times before, this book was received as a courtesy from the author. Despite that endlessly kind consideration, I will give it candid feedback below.

On first glance it’s rather hard to know what exactly to expect from “Ghosts”. Supernatural thriller? Bildungsroman? Simple personal drama? Thinly veiled autobio? Stylistically it’s a stream of consciousness put to paper, almost a Blair Witch of the printed page. The narrative bounces effortlessly from point to point, backwards and forwards in time and the reader is left to untangle the meaning of all of it for themselves in much the same way that real life is left as an exercise to the person living it.

Clausen’s novel is a complex and interwoven narrative and has a certain quality to it that buries it quietly into your skull. You may think momentarily to yourself that you need to put it down and go let out the cat but before you know it an hour has passed and the cat is still rather disgruntled and awaiting your attention. Our author weaves a tale with great draw that you just have to get to the bottom of. Along the way he plants images in your head that somehow linger after the book is over.
In summary, Clausen’s book is well worth the read but the potential peruser is cautioned to exercise patience. This is not your typical novel woven of fluff and cotton candy. It is best consumed on a long, cold rainy day in January when the whole rest of the world can be shut out, leaving you in Clausen’s capable hands.