I don’t know what you thought of when you read the title. No, I’m not looking for a ghost. This is the title of the book by Danielle Steel that I read recently.

Both ‘Bitter Sweet’ and ‘The Ghost’ are about letting go of the past wounds and embracing the future. Both are good in their own respect but I think ‘The Ghost’ is better captivating than the other one.

It is a story of a business executive Charlie who thinks he has everything in life – 10 years of happy married life, well recognized job, and a good house and so on. But news hits him hard and sudden – his marriage is over. His wife has an affair and would like to get married to the other guy. Charlie is broken. He moves out of London to New York. Even this change of location doesn’t get him back to normality. He takes 6 months of leave and takes a drive, without knowing where to go.

On the way, a storm hits and he has to take a shelter in a village. He gets in conversation with the inn keeper and it turns interesting. Charlie admires the beauty of the village and the friendship of the inn keeper, though an old lady. He then rents one of her chateau for six months.

That is where he meets her – Sarah, the one with an incredible courage and strength; not in person though, but via her journals. So begins a story within a story. As he reads through what Sarah went through and then how she found love and lived happily for many more years, the healing process begins within him. He finds courage to face his future.

The plot is well done. I couldn’t put down the book. Though this is one of Danielle’s earlier works, I think it is the best of all the novels that I read. As I read the last page, I got so emotional that I could’ve cried.

Everyone gets stumped by events in life. A fresh new perspective and a trusted friend is what it takes to get through from being a looser to a survivor. All the more interesting if the friend turns out to be the one with whom you spend the rest of your life.