by John Boyne
First published 2019
In 1988, aspiring writer Maurice Swift seizes on a chance meeting with celebrated novelist Erich Ackermann to uncover Ackermann's wartime secrets, using them as material for his debut novel. Fueled by a relentless ambition, Maurice hones his talent for manipulation, preying on the talented and vulnerable as he climbs the literary ladder from the Amalfi Coast to Manhattan. But the higher Maurice ascends, the more he risks losing his own humanity.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: dark-academia, unreliable-narrator
400 pages · Paperback · Hogarth
Content warnings: gaslighting