Based on a True Story
-
- €9.99
Publisher Description
'A wonderful literary trompe l'oeil: a book about friendship, writing and the boundary between reality and fantasy ... Dark, smart, strange, compelling' Harriet Lane, bestselling author of Her
Overwhelmed by the huge success of her latest novel, exhausted and suffering from a crippling inability to write, Delphine meets L.
L. embodies everything Delphine admires; sophisticated and unusually intuitive, she slowly but deliberately carves herself a niche in the writer's life. However, as she makes herself indispensable to Delphine, the intensity of this unexpected friendship manifests itself in increasingly sinister ways. And as their lives become further entwined, L. begins to threaten Delphine's identity and her safety.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Delphine, the narrator of this unsettling metafictional tale of obsession and interchangeable identities from de Vigan (Nothing Holds Back the Night), reverts back to her shy, schoolgirl persona after the success of her latest autobiographical novel leaves her feeling overwhelmed. Then she meets the chic, confident L., with whom she immediately strikes up an easy rapport. The friendship develops smoothly, with the two women getting drinks around Paris and learning more about each other. Except L. seems more eager to know everything there is to know about Delphine all about her two grown children, her relationship with her boyfriend than share much about herself. Writing is at the center of the relationship: Delphine's inability to put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, and L.'s insistence that there's a book Delphine must write. Almost without realizing it, Delphine cedes control to L., with dire consequences. While readers might pick up on L.'s unsavory nature faster than Delphine, the insidious nature of a complex mind game masquerading as friendship is chilling to watch unfold.
