ABOUT
THE BOOK

Barney Panofsky has always clung to two cherished beliefs: life is absurd, and nobody ever truly understands anybody else. Even his friends tend to agree that Barney is a wife-abuser, an intellectual fraud, a purveyor of pap, a drunk with a penchant for violence, and probably a murderer. But when his sworn enemy threatens to publish this calumny, Barney is driven to write his own memoirs, rewinding the spool of his life, editing, selecting and plagiarising as his memory plays tricks on him – and on the reader. Barney slides from crisis to success, from low- to high-life in Montreal, London and Paris, his outrageous exploits culminating in the scandal he carries around like a humpback: did he or didn’t he murder his best friend Boogie? Mordecai Richler was born in Montreal in 1931. He is the author of nine novels and was twice short listed for the Booker Prize.