Martin is the titular “ghost boy,” a man who suddenly fell ill when he was 12 years old. The book is told through his first-person perspective, as he chronicles his remarkable journey from his silent years where he spent countless hours in care facilities to his eventual wedding day that he shares with Joanna. Martin provides insight into the range of his emotions, from fear and frustration to faith and steadfastness. He is by nature a learner, a hopeful dreamer whose own determination to overcome barriers led him to achieve what many considered unimaginable and impossible. As Martin shares the complexity of his inner life, he wills himself to find hope in situations that remind him of his inherent value as a human being.

After a particularly difficult period of life, during which he longed for his life to be over, he found strength in the kindness of a few select people in his life, which at times gave him just enough strength to endure another day: “hope was like a breath of fresh air blowing through a tomb when it came” (186). By providing the intimate details of his thoughts and emotions, Martin reveals the complicated nature of a person who was so often overlooked or even discarded by society.