The Adversary (a True Story Of Monstrous Deception)

By (author) Carrère, Emmanuel
Short description/annotation
Acclaimed master of psychological suspense, Emmanuel Carrere, whose fiction John Updike described as ''stunning'' (New Yorker) explores the double life of a respectable doctor, eighteen years of lies, five murders, and the extremes to which ordinary people can go.
Description

**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 Carrère, 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.

Discover the true story that is ‘beyond the imagination of even the best crime writer'' (Sunday Times)

''A disturbing look at the dark side of human nature that is powerfully written and beautifully told'' Louis Theroux

''Mesmerising'' Sunday Telegraph

''Stunning'' Evening Standard

''Unputdownable'' Washington Post

''A masterpiece'' New York Times

Review quote
A disturbing look at the dark side of human nature that is powerfully written and beautifully told
Review quote
The story told here is truly beyond the imagination for even the best crime writer
Review quote
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
Review quote
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
Review quote
Unputdownable... Imagine a sleek, twenty-first century version of In Cold Blood
Review quote
A triumph of insight and concision, brilliant both as a psychological study and as the portrayal of a community
Review quote
A masterpiece... It''s a level of moral discomfort almost without equal in literature
Review quote
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
Review quote
The Adversary is exactly the idea I have of a modern novel: struggling deftly with facts and with itself
Review quote
An absolutely stunning piece of work, totally involving and unforgettable
Review quote
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.
Review quote
[A] book that fairly struck me over the head was The Adversary… it’s the coexistence of almost unimaginably variant realities within a family that haunts you.
Review quote
A remarkably thoughtful and unnerving book...mesmerising
Review quote
Profoundly disturbing...a remarkable and undoubtedly important book - perhaps even a necessary one
Review quote
A fascinating meditation on Jean-Claude Romand and what his bizarre life might mean... Carrère''s inquiry is highly personal, written in lucid prose...the narrative is often mesmerizing, and revealing about the fragility of human relationships
Biographical note