First published 2011
Vadim sits surrounded by manuscripts, trying to separate what he lived from what he invented. His four marriages blur together like characters in his books. His muse Dementia whispers stories that feel more real than his memories. Each novel he writes seems to rewrite his past. His first wife becomes a character. His second wife reads like fiction. The boundaries dissolve until Vadim cannot tell whether he is living his life or writing it. His books shape his reality as much as his reality shapes his books. The author discovers he may be trapped inside his own creation, where invention and experience become the same thing. What remains when a writer can no longer distinguish between the stories he tells and the life he lives?
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: meta-fiction, unreliable-narrator
Paperback · Penguin Books