Artifice
'A breathtaking book confirming Claire Berest's inexhaustible talent as a storyteller' Elle
'An astonishing thriller' Libération
Something strange is happening in museums across Paris.
A white horse appears in the library of the Pompidou Centre. Then stuffed wolves are displayed in a gallery, dressed in fine garments and drinking champagne.
The authorities are baffled - particularly when investigations lead to suspended police officer Abel Bac. Since being dismissed for unknown reasons, Abel has been wandering the streets of Paris, haunted by a recurring nightmare and hoping to lose himself in the city.
But following Abel leads to Mila, the mysterious artist at the heart of this enigma - and to a hidden darkness rising to the surface of the city.
As soon becomes clear, nothing about this chain of events has been a coincidence...
Translated by Sophie Lewis.
'Terrific! Set in modern Paris, this literary thriller invigoratingly combines questions of identity, shenanigans in the art world, love and murder' MICHÈLE ROBERTS
'Deliciously unique and unpredictable ... this novel blossoms like a poisonous flower' Le Journal du Dimanche
CLAIRE BEREST is a writer from Paris. In 2019, her novel Rien n'est noir about the life of Frida Kahlo won Elle's Grand Prix des lectrices. With her sister Anne, she is also the author of Gabriële, a critically-acclaimed biography of her great-grandmother, Gabriële Buffet-Picabia, Marcel Duchamp's lover and muse. She is the great-granddaughter of the painter Francis Picabia.
SOPHIE LEWIS is a literary editor and translator from French and Portuguese into English. She has translated works by Jules Verne, Marcel Aymé, Violette Leduc, Leïla Slimani and João Gilberto Noll, among others. Her translations have been shortlisted for the Scott Moncrieff and Republic of Consciousness prizes, and longlisted for the International Booker Prize.