Anyone's Ghost

A Novel

By: August Thompson

Narrated by: Lee Osorio

Longlisted for The Center For Fiction's 2024 First Novel Prize • Elle's Best Literary Fiction Books of 2024 list

“This new novel is a real heart-squeezer. Beautiful, one of a kind and perfectly titled.”—Matt Berninger, The National

“Anyone’s Ghost is about so very many things: the pains of growing up, friendship and pining, drugs, sex, the frustrations of masculinity and the thrill of testing death itself. But more than any of that, it is an overwhelmingly beautiful love story. This book will make you cry.”—Jonathan Safran Foer

An extraordinary debut novel in which the transforming love and friendship between two young men during one unforgettable teenage summer in rural New England haunts them into adulthood

It took three car crashes to kill Jake.

Theron David Alden is there for the first two: the summer they meet in rural New Hampshire, when he’s fifteen and anxious, and Jake’s seventeen and a natural; then six years later in New York City, those too-short, ecstatic, painful nights that change both their lives forever—the end of the dream and the longing for the dream and the dream itself, all at once.

Theron is not there for the third crash.

And yet, their story contains so much joy and self-discovery: the glorious, stupid simplicity of a boyhood joke; the devastation of insecurity; the way a great song can distill a universe; the limits of what we can know about each other; the mysterious, porous, ungraspable fault line between yourself and the person you love better than yourself; the beautiful, toxic elixir of need and hope and want.

Brimming with rare, radioactive talent, August Thompson has written a love story that is electrically alive and exquisitely tuned.

In the words of Jonathan Safran Foer, “This book will make you cry.”

©2024 August Thompson (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Brilliant . . . A coming-of-age story of first love, discovery, and grief.”—American Songwriter

“The unattainable boy will always be out there, but a genuinely powerful debut that succeeds solely on its merits instead of hype is a lot harder to find. Anyone’s Ghost, however, is one.”—The Irish Times

“[An] electric debut novel . . . With shades of André Aciman and Donna Tartt, the book fascinates from its first sentence . . . Thompson’s hypnotic prose and addictive plot moves and exhilarates in equal measure.”—Vogue

raw and poetic

“It’s always those oblong eras, where someone unexpected enters a life and reconfigures it entirely, that I love, that I miss, most.”

this was painful, beautiful, raw, and real
a tragic love story between two boys that could have been an epic movie-like romance had they felt safe in their own skin, had they received the support and guidance they were seeking
had they not made such important life choices based on double standards imposed by a narrow minded society

“Maybe in another life, huh?”

I knew it'd hurt but I wasn't expecting it to be so poetic, it was a great surprise... the tears were worth it and it's one of those stories I know I'll reread often


and the narrator was perfect

A tender, intimate portrait, skillfully narrated

In Theron David Alden, August Thomson gives us a sensitive, introspective protagonist who’s navigating the journey from adolescence to young manhood—and his confusing, formative relationship with the slightly older Jake. Anyone’s Ghost has been described as a “queer coming of age novel,” but its themes of identity, friendship, and first love are universal and relatable, even for this 60-something cisgender female reader.

Thompson’s writing delivers one dopamine hit after another: the nuanced observations that had me nodding in recognition, the fresh turns of phrase. Halfway through this listen, I bought a hard copy so I could go back and study Thompson's craft. I look forward to reading the novel, but I’m glad I listened to it first: Lee Osorio’s narration creates a vivid, immersive experience that does justice to Thompson’s prose.

My question now is: Who will direct the film? I see Timothée Chalamet in the lead role.

Exquisite

Beautiful raw tender intense authentic insightful painful funny poetic inspiring sexy uncomfortable cinematic (already cast and location scouted the limited Netflix series in my mind) I loved this book and hated to come to the end… so I started it again from the beginning…

The love between two teenage boys and the life together that never was

Thompson describes in detail the mundane things people do when they are together or when they are by themselves. he allows us to see what Darren thinks and how he views others in great detail. I could not stop until I would find out how the story will resolve. we know from the beginning that it will not end well, but we want to find out how we got there…

Great story and engaging performance!

Loved this book, and the performance by the reader was top-notch! Highly recommend this!

No redeeming characters - they're all awful

A LOT of substance abuse, gross depictions, obsession, and no one really caring much about anyone. The person the main character was obsessing over was an asshole. I couldn't wait to be done with it - I kept thinking it was going to get better because the reviews were fairly decent. It was a waste of my time.

Voice acting really does this book a disservice

I started reading this book and decided to give it a listen.

The narrators “Jake” voice is laughable. Sounds like bravos and butthead. Really bad and completely changes the tone of the book.