Follow an Englishman who is mistaken for his French doppleganger and drawn into the man’s troubled life, forcing him to confront identity, responsibility, and the consequences of living another person’s existence.

"A dazzlingly clever and immensely entertaining novel."—New York Times

By chance, John and Jean -- one English, the other French -- meet in a provincial railway station. Their resemblance to each other is uncanny, and they spend the next few hours talking and drinking - until at last John falls into a drunken stupor. It's to be his last carefree moment, for when he wakes, Jean has stolen his identity and disappeared. So the Englishman steps into the Frenchman's shoes, and faces a variety of perplexing roles - as owner of a chateau, director of a failing business, head of a fractious family, and master of nothing.

Gripping and complex, The Scapegoat is a masterful exploration of doubling and identity, and of the dark side of the self.