The Adversary: A True Story of Monstrous Deception

New
Paperback
2017
$11.96

Selected as a Book of the Year 2017 in The Times THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ON THE SATURDAY MORNING OF JANUARY 9, 1993, WHILE JEAN CLAUDE ROMAND WAS KILLING HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN, I WAS WITH MINE IN A PARENT-TEACHER MEETING... With these chilling first words, acclaimed master of psychological suspense, Emmanuel Carrere, begins his exploration of the double life of a respectable doctor, eighteen years of lies, five murders, and the extremes to which ordinary people can go. 'As a writer, Carrere is straight berserk; as a storyteller he is so freakishly talented, so unassuming in grace and power that you only realize the hold he's got on you when you attempt to pull away... You say: True crime and literature? I don't believe it. I say: Believe it' Junot Diaz 'Mesmerising' Sunday Telegraph 'Stunning' Evening Standard 'Unputdownable' Washington Post 'A masterpiece' New York Times

Synopsis

Selected as a Book of the Year 2017 in The Times THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ON THE SATURDAY MORNING OF JANUARY 9, 1993, WHILE JEAN CLAUDE ROMAND WAS KILLING HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN, I WAS WITH MINE IN A PARENT-TEACHER MEETING... With these chilling first words, acclaimed master of psychological suspense, Emmanuel Carrere, begins his exploration of the double life of a respectable doctor, eighteen years of lies, five murders, and the extremes to which ordinary people can go. 'As a writer, Carrere is straight berserk; as a storyteller he is so freakishly talented, so unassuming in grace and power that you only realize the hold he's got on you when you attempt to pull away... You say: True crime and literature? I don't believe it. I say: Believe it' Junot Diaz 'Mesmerising' Sunday Telegraph 'Stunning' Evening Standard 'Unputdownable' Washington Post 'A masterpiece' New York Times

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
Edition: 1
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 06 Jul 2017
ISBN 10: 1784705802
ISBN 13: 9781784705800

Media Reviews

This is the sort of story I dreamed of covering when I was a journalist. The sort of story for which the phrase You couldn't make it up was invented. The Adversary takes a deep, mesmerising dive into the darkness of a human soul. There were moments when I truly could not believe what I was reading. But unlike other serial killer noirs sitting on my shelves, this horror is real. And so much more chilling for that. -- Fiona Barton, author of The Widow
The story told here is truly beyond the imagination for even the best crime writer * Sunday Times *
The mesmerizing true crime tale of an apparently ordinary man whose life mutates in the space of a few blood-splattering hours from the realm of Renoir to that of Stephen King * People *
He's the best kind of writer, not just a bestseller but a man who is not afraid to leave the comfort zone of his desk, go out into the world, take risks, and get his shoes dirty * Observer *
A triumph of insight and concision, brilliant both as a psychological study and as the portrayal of a community -- Blake Morrison * Independent on Sunday *
A masterpiece... It's a level of moral discomfort almost without equal in literature * New York Times *
Savagely intense and utterly compelling... This is his paciest and cleanest-cut book...few books could better deserve a second chance to find new readers * Sunday Times *
The Adversary is exactly the idea I have of a modern novel: struggling deftly with facts and with itself -- Laurent Binet, author of HHhH
An absolutely stunning piece of work, totally involving and unforgettable * Evening Standard *
Unputdownable... Imagine a sleek, twenty-first century version of In Cold Blood * Washington Post *
A remarkably thoughtful and unnerving book...mesmerising * Sunday Telegraph *
Profoundly disturbing...a remarkable and undoubtedly important book - perhaps even a necessary one * Daily Express *
A fascinating meditation on Jean-Claude Romand and what his bizarre life might mean... Carrere's inquiry is highly personal, written in lucid prose...the narrative is often mesmerizing, and revealing about the fragility of human relationships * New York Times *
As a writer, Carrere is straight berserk; as a storyteller he is so freakishly talented, so unassuming in grace and power that you only realize the hold he's got on you when you attempt to pull away... You say: True crime and Literature? I don't believe it. I say: Believe it -- Junot Diaz
Justifiably considered the French In Cold Blood * Paris Review *

Author Bio

Emmanuel Carrere, novelist, filmmaker, journalist, and biographer, is the award-winning internationally renowned author of The Adversary (a Sunday Times bestseller and New York Times Notable Book, translated into twenty-three languages), Lives Other Than My Own, My Life as a Russian Novel, Class Trip, Limonov (winner of the 2011 Prix Renaudot), The Mustache and, most recently, The Kingdom.