This is a hard read, but compelling, in the way that watching a car crash is compelling.

How Jean-Claude Romand was able to live such a life for so long is unimaginable, the lies he told and the lies others must have told themselves to compound his initial lies are beyond belief.

The translation gives the book an almost clinical tone, but it is suited to the subject matter.

This is a book that has to be read, if only to convince yourself that it is not a work of fiction.