The Adversary: A True Story of Murder and Deception

Proof copy. 8vo. Pp. [vi], 183, [2]. Pictorial wraps. Originally published as L'Adversaire in 2000 by Éditions Gallimard in its Folio list.

A New Statesman Book of the Year, a New York Times Notable Book, and a major bestseller in France. "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." The double life of a seemingly respectable doctor turned serial killer, Jean-Claude Romand, after the author struck up a correspondence with him while on remand, and followed his subsequent trial. Part-psychological thriller, part-memoir, a work of nonfiction about a man who was the author of the fiction of his own life.

Carrère has been referred to as "the most exciting living writer" by the exemplar of the "autofiction" genre, Karl Ove Knausgaard. In 2002, L'Adversaire was adapted into the film of the same name by director Nicole Garcia, based on the author's screenplay, and starring Daniel Auteuil. "Unputdownable... Imagine a sleek, twenty-first century version of In Cold Blood." –The Washington Post Book World