The slippery online ecosystem is the perfect breeding ground for identities: true, false, and in between. The Internet shorthand IRL-"in real life"-now seems naïve. We no longer question the reality of online experiences but the reality of selfhood in the digital age. In The Secret Life, the essayist and novelist Andrew O'Hagan issues three bulletins from the porous border between cyberspace and IRL. "Ghosting" introduces us to the beguiling and divisive Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, whose autobiography the author agrees to ghostwrite with unforeseen-and unforgettable-consequences. "The Invention of Ronnie Pinn" finds the author using the actual identity of a deceased young man to construct an entirely new one in cyberspace, leading him on a journey deep into the Web's darkest realms. And "The Satoshi Affair" chronicles the strange case of Craig Wright, the Australian Web developer who may or may not be the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto-and who may or may not be willing, or even able, to reveal the truth.
Andrew O'Hagan issues three bulletins from the porous border between cyberspace and the 'real world.' Ghosting introduces us to Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, whose autobiography the author ghost-writes with unforeseen consequences. The Invention of Ronnie Pinn finds the author using the identity of a deceased man to construct an entirely new one in cyberspace. Finally, The Satoshi Affair chronicles the strange case of Craig Wright, the Australian web developer who may or may not be the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin.
Standing one evening at the window of her house by the sea, Anne Quirk sees a rabbit disappearing in the snow. Nobody remembers her now, but this elderly woman was in her youth a pioneer of British documentary photography. Only when her beloved grandson, Luke, returns home to Scotland does Anne's secret story begin to emerge, along with his, and they set out for an old guest house in Blackpool where she once kept a room.
Anne Quirk's life is built on stories—both the lies she was told by the man she loved and the fictions she told herself to survive. Nobody remembers Anne now, but this elderly woman was an artistic pioneer in her youth, a creator of groundbreaking documentary photographs. Her beloved grandson Luke, now a captain with the Royal Western Fusiliers in the British army, has inherited her habit of transforming reality. When Luke's mission in Afghanistan goes horribly wrong, his vision of life is distorted and he is forced to see the world anew.
Once Luke returns to Scotland, the secrets and lies that have shaped generations of his family begin to emerge as he and Anne set out to confront a mystery from her past among the Blackpool Illuminations—the dazzling artificial lights that brighten the seaside resort town as the season turns to winter.
