The Ghost by Danielle Steel

To be discussed on October 6, 2010 at 6:30 pm

In The Ghost, Danielle Steel has brilliantly interwoven past and present in a timeless novel of courage, history and love.

With a wife he loves and an exciting London-based career, Charles Waterston is quite unprepared for the sudden end to his ten-year marriage - and his unwanted transfer to the New York office. With nothing left to lose, and with Christmas approaching, Charlie takes leave of absence and drives through New England, hoping to make peace with himself. A sudden, blinding snowstorm strands him in a small town, where an elderly widow offers to rent him an exquisite lakeside chateau hidden deep in the woods. From the moment he sets foot inside, Charles feels the presence of Sarah, the beautiful young woman who lived and died there two centuries ago - and on Christmas Eve, he glimpses her for the first time. At first he thinks it is a trick, until he finds her diaries hidden away in an old trunk and, as he turns the brittle, dusty pages and learns more about Sarah, she starts to come alive for him.

From her arrival in America in 1789, Sarah writes of her harrowing flight from England and her determination to start a new life in the vast new world. She meets a French nobleman who transforms her life, and their fateful union has a love so powerful that it reaches across the centuries. Her story gives Charlie the courage to let go of his past, and the freedom to grasp a future that is right before his eyes.

1. Did you like this book? Why or why not?

2. Did you have a favorite character? Why this character?

3. Was the plot interesting or predictable?

4. Did you like the book ending or want to change it?

5. Would you recommend this book to a friend?

6. Did you learn anything from this book?