The False Man

Paul Robertson is a womanizing mercurial fugitive who has assumed the identity of a missing rock photographer after escaping a Mexican prison on a false murder charge. Spurred by his negative experiences in jail to embrace a new existence of lies and duplicity, he arrives in LA and quickly bluffs his way onto the staff of a low-end alternative rock magazine run by iconoclastic British journalist Mark and his wife Vera, immersing himself in a life of rock shows, drugs and women, while always paying service to his philosophical muse of duplicity.

When he meets the ravishing Nicola he realizes that to make any progress with her he has to get close to her while also concealing the dark secrets of his past and how he really came to be who he is, a task that proves much more difficult than he ever could have imagined. "How long does it take before lies become the truth?" he asks himself as he gradually learns to leave his past behind and truly merge with the life he is leading.

But the real fun begins when he falls for the sumptuous Nicola who threatens to uncover the mystery of his past. His world begins to unravel around him and the shocking inconsistencies of his narrative eventually geyser to the surface one night after a wild apocalyptic Hollywood party.

Imagine Hunter S. Thompson and Albert Camus meeting on the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax and you would only have a glimpse of what lies in waiting when you pick up The False Man, a sexy black comedy and psychological thriller as much as it is a scathing philosophical exploration of our modern culture of lies or a grand literary celebration of The City of Angels.

Crescent Suns e-Book Blog said this:

"A Light in the Darkness - The False Man

"...I sorted through the eBooks waiting on my Kindle and discovered The False Man, by indie author David Antonelli and my eyes became glued to the page, er, screen. Here was a story unlike the usual genre I tend to read and even unlike the majority of what I have read outside my usual genre. And I found I became engrossed enough to not want to put it down until I was finished with it and knew all the intricacies of this odd little story...The "hero" of the story uses the dead photographer's ID to re-enter the United States, fearing that his own identity has been compromised by his prison escape. He then takes up life in Los Angeles - as a photographer - using the same stolen ID and finds he is actually quite good at this work. But how long can a man continue on living under someone else's identity before his false world starts falling down on top of him? That's the story behind David Antonelli's The False Man. An intriguing story of moderate...purchase - ah - I mean download this great story before the author gets his head on straight and starts charging for it. The False Man, by David Antonelli, at Smashwords. Get it. Read it. Enjoy it. I did."

David Antonelli was born in Chicago and educated at Oxford, Caltech, and MIT. He has published 12 novels and one book of poetry. His film credits include multi award-nominated feature Inbetween (2008; 8.6/10 on IMDb) and Finding Rudolf Steiner (Official Selection Calgary International Film Festival 2006), He is currently a Professor at Lancaster University. and runs an Instagram page (@davidmichaelantonelli) with weekly reels reviewing books and music.