The Adversary Book

"On the morning of Saturday January 9th 1993, while Jean-Claude Romand was killing his wife and children, I was with mine in a parent-teacher meeting..." So begins Carrere's disturbing exploration of the mind of a ruthless killer, a man so entangled in the web of his own deceptions that it became easier to kill than confess. Every detail of Romand's life had been built on an elaborate edifice of fabrication. How could he have lied to so many for so long without anyone suspecting him?His journey into madness began when Romand failed an exam at medical school. He quietly dropped out of college while friends and family continued to believe his career was advancing in leaps and bounds. To the outside world, he became a highly respected research scientist with the World Health Organisation, an esteemed intellectual and humanitarian who'd even been given a signed bust by Brigitte Bardot in gratitude for his support for her animal rights foundation. Somewhere in all the lying, the real Romand had been irretrievably lost. And when finally his dissimulated world began to crumble around him, the threat to his sense of self drove him to eradicate those closest to him. Not only did he murder his wife and young children, it also transpired that a few days earlier, Romand had also killed his parents.Emmanuel Carrere's record of his correspondence with Romand charts a horrific journey into the psyche of a killer and questions the nature of human identity human, delusion and evil. With a keen sense of narrative and exacting control of an unravelling life, he draws a window into a darker place next door.--Rebecca JohnsonRead More