Kaya Genç"It is now truly a great relief, something close to a sublime experience, to have nothing more to worry about than death," Philip Roth said in an interview published in the New York Times Book Review two weeks ago.The great American author had announced his retirement from writing in 2012. "I haven't written a word of fiction since 2009. I have no desire to write fiction. I did what I did, and it's done," he had said at the time, making clear that he had stopped writing fiction three years before the announcement. Since his retirement became public knowledge, Roth seems to take joy in giving interviews where he talks about the pleasure of not being a writer anymore. In the Times interview he quoted Joe Louis, the American boxing hero of his childhood, who had summed up his career in 10 words: "I did the best I could with what I had." What better way to think about this great American novelist and his new role as a "ghost" of his old self, than to read his 1979 novel, "The Ghost Writer," published in Turkish for the first time last week? It is one of the most curious texts Roth ever wrote and constitutes the first part of what came to be known as Roth's Zuckerman novels.In case you haven't heard yet, the narrator of "The Ghost Writer," Nathan Zuckerman, is Roth's alter ego. As a prospective novelist who cut his teeth on short stories, Zuckerman and Roth were both born into middle-class Jewish families in Newark. As they became more famous, both the writer and his creation felt the weight of their culture and struggled to liberate themselves from its burden.In "The Ghost Writer," Zuckerman recounts an incident from his youth. In his early twenties Zuckerman's main concern is the meaning and responsibilities of his vocation.Since his teenage years Zuckerman had idealized the great Jewish novelist E. I. Lonoff, in whose house he spends a night. On the face of it, "The Ghost Writer" is the story of that night and the following morning, but at the end of the book we realize that it is a great deal more than that.Bernard Malamud, the American Jewish writer Roth admires most, is rumored to have inspired Lonoff. Although we don't get to read Lonoff 's work, we know that he is a colossal figure who connects American literature to the literary traditions of Europe. Lonoff lives a reclusive life, miles away from the city. The first two decades of Lonoff 's literary career are spent in obscurity; he lives away from people not because he wants to get away from intruders but because nobody cares for or knows about his existence. Lonoff seems happy to have chosen this life, which allows him to focus on his writing as much as he can. His wife, on the other hand, is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, which seems understandable, given that the novelist's need for isolation and solitude makes life oppressive for the person who accompanies him.Zuckerman's night with Lonoff and his family provides a depressing experience for the young writer who, after accepting Lonoff 's invitation to stay for the night, browses through his library, makes note of the book titles and feels elevated to share the environment in which the great writer works. Roth then shifts the focus to a young girl called Amy who looks somewhat like Anne Frank, one of the most famous victims of the Holocaust. But is Amy a real character or a product of Zuckerman's imagination? Readers will have to decide for themselves.The latest volume of Zuckerman novels was published in 2007. "Exit Ghost" was among the last books Roth wrote. Although Roth promised never to return to writing after his controversial exit, I think it is still uncertain whether he can keep that promise. After all, one of the main traits of his fictional characters had been their infidelity to their communities, pasts and spouses, and one can only hope that the ghostwriter will one day follow their example and return to writing. "Hayalet Yazar," Philip Roth, translated by Burç İdem Dinçel, Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 160 pp., TL 12 TL.