The Face Thief: A Novel - Hardcover

Gottlieb, Eli

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061735051 ISBN 13: 9780061735059

Publisher: William Morrow, 2012

Synopsis

Author of the New York Times Notable Book The Boy Who Went Away—winner of the Rome Prize and the British Society of Authors’ McKitterick Prize—Eli Gottlieb returns with The Face Thief. A powerfully dark and gripping tale of two men obsessed with one very charismatic, very  damaged woman who’s determined to con from each of them everything she needs to survive, The Face Thief offers highest quality psychological suspense—an ideal follow up to the author’s  masterful  Now You See Him. A writer who can do no wrong, Eli Gottlieb shines with The Face Thief—an effective, provocative, and all around extraordinary novel, written with the literary flair and power of Ian McEwan and rich in its searing portraits of fallible lovers and marriages under siege.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Eli Gottlieb’s previous novel, Now You See Him, was acclaimed by reviewers as “irresistible ... moving” (New York Times Book Review), “a triumph...of literary suspense” (Los Angeles Times), and “gorgeous” (USA Today). With The Face Thief, he returns with a driving, compulsively readable novel that probes the wellsprings of human greed and loyalty beset by temptation.

Gottlieb introduces the mystery of the charismatic Margot, a promising journalist who morphs—with stunning panache—from a high-achieving affluent twentysomething into a grifter making her living preying on the weaknesses of men. Having studied the ancient Chinese art of face reading, she becomes an expert at reading people and is also able to rearrange her look and persona with uncanny skill to fit any social situation. She is an avenging angel, shattering marriages and draining bank accounts.

What drives her quest to deceive and disarm? Exploring this question, The Face Thief moves fluidly forward and back in time, drawing vivid portraits of Margot’s rocky childhood and her adult victims: an amiable, newly married man enticed into a catastrophic fraud; an esteemed teacher outwitted by his most dangerous student; and a well-meaning New York City cop tripped up by his belief in redemption.

Ingeniously constructed and exquisitely written, The Face Thief swirls a hypnotic dance of predator and prey, creating a contemporary landscape where the educated are violent, the beautiful ugly, and the well-intentioned hapless. And yet we never give way to despair, because the protagonists of the book push back against the maelstrom and attempt tirelessly to right their toppled lives. Rich in suspense, psychological depth, and nuance, The Face Thief confirms Gottlieb’s standing as “a master” (Denver Post) and, in the words of essayist Phillip Lopate, “an enthralling stylist who[se] . . . characters are shockingly, electrically alive.”

About the Author

Eli Gottlieb's New York Times Notable Book, The Boy Who Went Away, won the Rome Prize and the 1998 McKitterick Prize from the British Society of Authors. His second novel, Now You See Him, has been translated into eleven languages. He lives in New York City.www.eligottlieb.com

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0061735051
• ISBN 13: 9780061735059
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256