The slippery online ecosystem of encrypted messages, leaked documents, black markets, cryptocurrencies, and fake Facebook profiles (68 million of them) is the perfect breeding ground for identities. Some are true, some are false, and some lie in between. The old Internet shorthand IRL--"in real life"--Now seems naïve. We no longer question the reality of online experiences, but rather 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 one of the most beguiling and divisive figures of the Internet era: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whose autobiography the author agrees to ghostwrite, with unforeseen--and unforgettable--consequences. "The Invention of Ronald Pinn" finds the author using the actual identity of a deceased young man to construct an entirely new identity in cyberspace, leading him on a journey deep into the Dark Web's deepest 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."--Jacket flap.