This was a lot. The fact. The fiction. The truth. The fabrication. I'm simply astonished by how good this book is.

Wow what a read. I flew through this with its great twists and turns. Will be looking out for more from Carrere!

Comprehending the incomprehensible... 5 stars

On January 9th, 1993, Jean-Claude Romand killed his wife, his two young children and his parents and then failed to kill himself. Emmanuel Carrère tells us that, on reading about the case as it was splashed all over the newspapers, he quickly decided to write about it. It wasn’t the facts that interested him so much, though – he wanted to understand what went on Romand’s head. By corresponding with Romand, talking to his friends and neighbours, attending his trial and using his own understanding of what drives people, Carrère sets out in this book to comprehend the incomprehensible.

Romand’s act seemed to those who knew him to be completely out of character and to come out of the blue. But the police soon discovered that he’d been living a lie for most of his adult life. What started with a relatively small deception – that he had passed an exam when in fact he hadn’t turned up for it – snowballed until he had invented an entire imaginary career for himself as a doctor working in research for the World Health Organisation in Geneva. Amazingly, he carried this false identity off for many years, convincing not only friends and neighbours but also his wife and parents. To finance his lie he needed a source of income, which he got by embezzling his elderly relatives out of their life savings. It was when, finally, discovery seemed inevitable that he decided suicide was the only way out. His explanation of why he decided that his family too must die is chillingly narcissistic but has a kind of warped logic to it. But was his suicide attempt real? The prosecutors suggested he never intended to die – in their view, his plan was to lie his way out of responsibility.

Having recently read Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, in which he too sets out to understand the minds of murderers, I saw a lot of similarities in the approach of the two authors. Each tells the story of the lead up to the crime, taking us back into the childhood and early years of the murderer in an attempt to understand them. Each takes us through the crime itself, sparing us none of the horrific details, but avoiding gratuitous description designed purely to shock or titillate. And each shows us the aftermath, both on the murderers and on the community affected by the crime.

But there are also differences, which in fact made me prefer this one. While both authors speculate beyond the known facts from time to time, especially with regard to motive and character, Carrère always makes it clear when he’s doing this, whereas sometimes Capote presents fiction as fact. This meant that I had a much clearer picture of what was evidence-based and what was Carrère’s own interpretation. Carrère inserts himself more openly into the book, which I found a little disconcerting at first. But gradually it gave me an understanding of how he too became affected by this crime, and of how his opinion of Romand changed over time. I found the personal insight he brought to the subject perceptive and well-judged, and I appreciated his honesty about his doubts over the ethics of giving a platform to this narcissistic murderer. He at one point quotes a friend, journalist Martine Servandoni, who told him:

“He must be just thrilled that you’re writing a book on him! That’s what he’s dreamed about his whole life. So it was a good thing that he killed his parents – all his wishes have come true. People talk about him, he’s on TV, someone’s writing his biography, and he’s well on his way to becoming a saint. That’s what you call coming out on top. Brilliant performance. I say, Bravo!”

Carrère doesn’t put forward a defensive counter argument. He simply makes it clear that he is aware of the question, and leaves it for the reader to decide. And of course the reader too is part of this dubious morality – a question that is raised every time there’s a gun massacre or terrorist attack. Should we give any publicity to people who step so far beyond society’s norms? And yet the desire to understand is irresistible. Carrère’s own doubts become more marked as he tells of Romand’s life in prison where he had at the time of writing become a kind of celebrity and had “discovered” God’s grace. Carrère leaves us to question whether he has truly found redemption or just one more lie to hide behind.

A fascinating and very well written account that has given me much to think about – what makes someone behave like this, and what should our reaction be? I am chilled to discover that Romand is now eligible for parole and may soon be released* – I say I believe in rehabilitation and redemption but do I really, in every case? Against my rational will, part of me thinks he should have hanged or, being French, been guillotined. Or perhaps he should have been bludgeoned to death, as he did to his wife, or tricked and then shot, as he did to his children. Or shot in the back, as he did to his father. Or perhaps someone he loves should wait till he’s old and frail and then shoot him in the chest as he looks trustingly at them, as he shot the woman who bore him, loved him and supported him all his life. As a minimum, all of me thinks he should never be set free.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Random House Vintage.

*Happily, since I drafted this, the court has rejected his parole request. For now...

On the Saturday morning of January 9, 1993, Jean Claude Romand killed his wife and children in a moment of madness, he told one lie after the other each time digging himself a bigger hole that he had now way out of..

to his family and friends he was a successful doctor they also trusted him with there money when he said he would invest the money but he was the one spending all there cash..

With these chilling first words, acclaimed master of psychological suspense Emmanuel Carrère begins his exploration of the double life of respectable doctor, 18 years of lies, five murders and the extremes to which ordinary people can go

why did he kill his family did they really need to die what really happened that night did they know it was there father and husband that killed them and will his friends forgive him for what he did his lies the killing of his family...

i really enjoyed this book even though its not a long book it packs a punch and you get to find out the why's and why he did what he did it was written very well i do wish the book was longer but it was good
i liked it very much

I struggled reading this. "Is this real? This can't be real." It's a story that a fiction editor would throw out for being too implausible, too ridiculous. So my questions became HOW is this real? HOW did he get away with this? A gripping read - there are some slight artefacts from translation and odd turns of phrase, but nothing that impacts on the trading experience.

One of the couldn't-make-it-up stories you find in the best true crime titles. A man kills his children, his wife and his parents - and tries to kill himself (or does he??) based on the hole he's dug for himself. Comparisons with In Cold Blood are obvious but accurate, and the book not only has a great story told very well but also bears with it a moral dilemma from the author, asking himself and us how we should respond to the culprit's thinking and current situation. Clever, concise and compelling.

"I was thinking of the big white void that had slowly taken over inside him until all that was left was that semblance of a man dressed in black."

I'd never heard of The Adversary before, or Jean-Claude Romand, but when I saw this latest edition on NetGalley I had to request it as the true story sounded so incredible. In fact, I think if the story of a man conning his family for almost 20 years and then killing them all before his secret could come out was written in a fiction, I would have said it wasn't believable.

And yet, real life is often stranger than fiction, Luckily, Carrère tells this story in a way that is quite understated, letting the brutality of the crime do the talking rather than courting controversy by inserting thrills. The Adversary is a well written and fascinating exploration of a crime and the criminal.

"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..."

That's a great first sentence. It's one that grabs the attention but it is also typical of the way Carrère writes throughout the book; he faces the horrific act with a matter-of-factness that makes it all the more chilling.

When first hearing about Jean-Claude Romand and his crimes, you wonder how he could have done it, what snapped inside him. Carrère gives the back story and the build up to the murders. It's an interesting book; delving into Romand's character and his lies.

I also couldn't believe at first that no one had caught Romand out in his lies. Yet, Carrère goes back to the beginning and builds the story steadily and you can almost see how Romand got himself in so deep and couldn't get out. You can almost see how he justified his own actions.
Almost, but not completely. Carrère is adept at showing the denial and backwards logic that makes up Romand's character. He's twisted, not in the sense that he was born as some kind of Antichrist, but in the way an insecure yet greedy person can become twisted and evil.

"People don't know what true madness is. It's dreadful. It's the most dreadful thing in the world."

Some of Romand's defenses of himself are rather sickening, especially when you remember that he also defrauded these people of all their money as well; not just lying but stealing and eventually killing too.

The Adversary is quite a short book but the pace does not feel rushed and I felt like I got all the information and story I needed in that time. While Carrère does sometimes analyse Romand's actions. at other times he just states them and lets them speak for themselves.

The Adversary is a well researched, written and explored true crime book that manages to be addictive without being sensationalist.

My Rating: 4/5 stars

I recieved a copy of The Adversary via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author and publisher.

A fascinating telling of a true story which would belong on the pages of any fiction novel. To his neighbours, Jean Claude Romand was a respected doctor, working at the World Health Organisation, and a devoted husband and father. Unbeknownst to them he was living a lie, there was no job (for money he conducted a kind of ponzi scheme with his parent's savings) and while his wife thought he was at work, Jean Claude was conducting an affair. Slowly the deception starts to crumble as the money begins to run out and Jean Claude snaps, over the course of a weekend killing his wife, children and parents and making a half hearted suicide attempt. He fails and stands trial for the murders while all around him ask themselves how he could have fooled so many for so long.

This is a brief novel, coming in at under 200 pages, but it is utterly absorbing. Romand's lies are so brazen and large and he keeps them up for almost 20 years. His deception starts almost innocuously when he oversleeps and misses a crucial exam and the author notes that it may have been easier for Romand to do the work rather than continue the lie but his parents high expectations send him into a spiral of deceit. If it weren't for the financial difficulties he finds himself in as the money he's pretended to invest for his parents starts to run out, you wonder if Romand could have kept this going for another 20 years. Carrere strikes up a correspondence with Romand, and his eventual meeting with him is almost disappointing as he finds the man himself doesn't live up to the vastness of the story. As terrible as what Romand did was, as a person he is quite ordinary with trivial complaints about his incarceration. The fascination lies with how he deceived so many people simply by them taking his words at face value.

This book feels like more than just literary true crime. It's an interesting story where the author attempts to get inside the head of a man who choose a bizarre and ultimately devastating way to live his life.

I received a ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

First I think that this true story is incredible. I can't understand how someone can live such a deceptive life and get away with everything for such a long time. It must take some real comunicative skills to convince your own family and everyone around you that you work a job you don't work, have degrees you don't have, earn money you don't earn. It was so interesting to read about the ways in which Jean-Claude Romand managed to live the lies of his life. An interesting way to see how the lies started was to read the whole story of Jean-Claude. I gave a lot more dept to the massacre and showed the mess Jean-Claude slowly put himself in. It shows how skillfull he really was in depection from a young age. 

The ending of these massive lies led to Jean-Claude Romand murdering his wife, children, and his parents. The thought that kept popping in my head was: why didn't he end his own life? Why kill everyone because of the mess you can't get out of, but not kill yourself? That would seem a logic decision to me, since he is the one that can't talk himself out of it anymore and not his family. I also amazes me that all the lies came to the surface after he murdered his family, and nothing came out before that.  

The writer Emmanuel Carrère decided to write a book about this case and started having contact with Romand. The way Carrère talked about Romand showed that Carrère comes over as a very nice, charming, smart person. It sounded to me that Carrère accepted his time in prison and made the best of it, even though his family and dog was still a trigger. I think Carrère did a really good job in talking about Jean-Claude Romand and his massive deceptive life. He showed Romands reactions in court in a great way, managed to tell his whole story in a nice chronological way, and made an impressive connection with the moments Romand ended the lifes of his family and what he himself was doing at the time.

Fascinating and captivating; very well-balanced. A a real triumph!

Doctor, liar, con-artist, fraudster and murderer - over a period of 18 years one French man managed to trick his wife, family and friends into believing he was a Doctor at a prestigious medical organisation and defrauded family and friends out of a considerable sum in order to fund his seemingly ordinary life and his more extravagant life with his mistress. He murdered his wife, children and parents when it all started unraveling for him. I'm not generally a reader of true crime but have to say this was a quite fascinating account of this man's life and an interesting character analysis.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

A fascinating tale - truth is stranger than fiction! I wouldn't exactly say this was written like a novel but it was certainly very gripping.

This is not just a factual recreation of events, but a literary work, and certain moments are highlighted and repeated for greater impact. But, at its heart, it remains a powerful meditation on the banal origin of evil. The author fills in gaps with speculations about what might have been going on in Romand's head. He brings in the religious beliefs of the parents and wife, and how that might have kept them from questioning things too closely.  He wonders how it became possible for Romand to get so carried away with his web of lies and confabulation, that he started believing them himself. Why did he put so much effort into maintaining a deception when he could undoubtedly have qualified in the medical profession for real? How could his family and friends live beside this man for so long and not suspect a thing?
Carrere follows the trial and remarks on Romand's the seemingly utter lack of remorse, but he also gets to hear Romand's side of the story, as well as the shocked reactions of his friends and neighbours. Although he does not excuse Romand's behaviour by any means, he is made to feel guilty by the other journalists reporting on the case for 'glorifying' the evil deeds by giving the narcissistic perpetrator the notoriety that he so clearly craves.

Amazing book, wonderful insightful writing. It was incredible that the deception went on for so long, and that family and friends had no idea that Romand's life was a total sham. I want to go back and read it all over again. Buy this book and read it, you will not regret it.

Carrere writes what he himself calls “nonfiction novels” and this absorbing story of a seemingly respectable professional man who suddenly kills his parents, wife and children, stunning the local community, combines the best of both non-fiction and fiction narrative. Comparisons have justifiably been made with Capote’s In Cold Blood and the similarities are clear – the writer absorbs himself in the life of the murderer and tries to get inside his head to somehow understand what led to the horrific crime. The writing is clear and concise and for the most part cool and unemotional as Carrere reconstructs the life of the man with whom he had associated for many years, trusting in and never questioning what turns out to be a completely fabricated life. I found the book uncomfortably compelling and quite impossible to put down. The lack of sensationalism or melodrama – aspects that often bedevil true-crime stories – is welcomingly absent here, making the sorry tale all the more troubling.

An utterly compelling tour-de-force as Carrere offers a wonderfully complicated account of the long-term imposter, Jean Claude Remand, who ends by massacring his entire family to avoid being caught out. That's a vast over-simplification of a book which is thoughtful, gripping, and which itself grapples with both how to tell Remand's story and how to make sense of it.

Carrere keeps things tense and taut (the book is c.200 pages, easily read in a single sitting) while treating his subject with a kind of passionate intelligence. A brilliant re-boot of the 'true crime' genre that avoids easy clichés.

The Adversary is a very well written book on a subject which, by definition, defies analysis and penetration. The protagonist is a habitual liar and has spun a web of deceipt around his friend's and loved ones for many years. Then, when the house of cards he has carefully constructed is about to fall around his ears, he commits an unforgiveable atrocity and murders his parents, his wife and their two children.

From this madness the author skilfully weaves a narrative of a man who grows up with a stoic detachment, who finds that he is almost invisibile amongst his peers. As he progresses to ever grander lies to gain attention he uses his obvious intelligence to move mountains to convince everyone he is an eminent doctor.

This is an uncomfortable read and, putting the gruesome crimes to one side, the author himself admits that getting to know the protagonist made him question whether he was seeing the true human inside or yet another act, another layer of falsehood.

This book is written in an economical fashion and the style is clearly in the French vein, loose and carefree, however it is still very well structured and the author does an excellent job of presenting this man of contradictions and smoke and mirrors.

A fairly short but very intriguing read, truth really is stranger than fiction.

Working for a major book retailer in the UK, we are currently promoting this as our Non- Fiction Book of the Month, and whilst some of my colleagues seem keen to foist this on our customers as a true crime book, I would say that The Adversary is so far off the scale of slasher-style true crime so as not to really resemble a true crime book in its traditional form, the notable exceptions being In Cold Blood and The Executioner’s Song. With a subtle and thoughtful grace, that mirrors Emmanuel Carrere’s dual style as a writer of high quality literary fiction, he presents a tale revolving around a truly Walter Mitty-esque man, whose whole identity and life is built on a tissue of lies and deceit with horrific results. Carrere stands at a distance from his subject for much of the book, although slightly peppering the tale with instances of his own life as a family man, but encourages the reader to form their own opinions, and moral judgement on Romand’s life and crimes. The writing is succinct, and at times, beautifully lyrical as The Adversary explores Romand’s twisted and, at times, inexplicable relationship with the world, leading to an original and disturbing portrait of the mind and psychosis of a killer. Recommended.

Although sometimes a little dense, overall this was an interesting approach to the genre. It's a shame there isn't an update to this reissue.

I'm obsessed with true crime novels. There, I said it. I just find them so fascinating, especially when you find a book about a crime / criminal you've never heard of before... Introducing Jean-Claude Romand. A narcissistic liar and cheater who swindled his family out of all their money, lied to them about who he really was for 18 years and then murdered them. This sounds like something out of a fictional novel, but ladies & gents, this is all 100% real.

Maybe my 5 star rating is a little bias because I love true crime so much, but this book ticked all the boxes for me. Firstly, it was about such a bizarre and extraordinary crime, I was enthralled by every part of it, and secondly Carrère writes in such a simple and beautiful way that you forget you're reading fact.

What astounds me so much about this novel is its subject. Jean-Claude Romand lived 18 years of his life (that's only 2 years younger than I am right now) living a lie. How does a person get away with lying about everything for 18 years without getting caught? I can't go into much detail in this review, otherwise I'm just going to spoil the whole thing, and once I get talking about it, I'll never stop. But I mean really, how his friends & family trusted this man so much as to believe everything he said... amazes me. However, it's also made me very aware that you don't question the people you trust, I'm sure people could get away with so much before anyone noticed!

This book is incredible, shocking and mind boggling. It reads like poetry but it packs a very real punch. I loved it! If you're a true crime fan, like myself, pick this one up quick!

Thank you to Penguin Random House UK & Vintage for sending me an arc copy for review.