Adversary A True Story of Monstrous Deception

<p><b>"Justifiably considered the French <i>In Cold Blood</i>" (<i>The Paris Review</i>), <i>The Adversary</i> is a landmark work of true crime-and a deeply personal investigation of inexplicable evil. </b><br><br>"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."<br><br>So begins Emmanuel Carrere's unclassifiable masterpiece, now newly reissued. The crimes shocked France. For eighteen years, Romand's life was the model of bourgeois contentment. Peers admired him as a doting family man, a loving son who called his parents every evening, and a respected researcher at the World Health Organization.<br><br>But those were all lies: Romand had never graduated from medical school or worked at the WHO. He spent his days wandering in the forest; he supported his family by defrauding relatives. When cracks appeared in his facade, Romand reacted in a way even he couldn't explain.<br><br>Emmanuel Carrere is "widely understood as France's greatest writer of nonfiction" (<i>The New York Times Magazine</i>); <i>The Adversary</i>, his account of the life, crimes, and trial of Jean-Claude Romand, is his magnum opus.</p>