Storytelling writ large by an author who rarely disappoints
A novel that brilliantly hazes the distinction between past and present, truth and forgery, fiction and fact
Fiction: The Secret Books, By Marcel Theroux, Faber & Faber, €17
In 1894, a book called The Unknown Life of Jesus appeared in France and became, very rapidly, a sensation and a scandal. Its author was a Jewish Crimean journalist and adventurer of dubious reputation named Nicolas Notovitch (pronounced “Know-to-vitch”).
Notovich claimed to have visited the Tibetan Buddhist Monastery of Hemis, where he had discovered a hidden manuscript that recounted the early life ...
