Where is reality to be found: at the surface of things or behind it?

Max Willem, a young art student in Montreal at the end of the 1960s, becomes obsessed with outward appearances - with makeup, costume, and masks of all kinds. For him, outward reality, and in particular that of the opposite sex, is composed of many veils of illusion and artifice through which he must see if he is to feel fully alive. At the same time, Max discovers his exceptional talent for art forgery. Moving to New York, he becomes a tool in the hands of a powerful international ring dealing in forged art, and suffers from the loss of his own artistic integrity. Himself seduced as much a seducer, how can Max escape and redeem his artistic soul?

In The Art of Deception, Sergio Kokis has written a novel about mystification and illusion. His exuberant narrative provides a caustic insight into the undersides of art and of love.

Sergio Kokis is the author of eight novels. His first, Le pavillon des miroirs (translated as Funhouse) won four major literary prizes in 1994. L'art du maquillage (translated here as The Art of Deception) appeared in 1997.

W. Donald Wilson was born in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, in 1938. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Trinity College, Dublin, and has taught at universities in the West Indies and England, and Canada. He lives in Waterloo, Ontario.

Sergio Kokis' profile page

W. Donald Wilson was born in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, in 1938. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Trinity College, Dublin, and has taught at universities in the West Indies and England, and Canada. He lives in Waterloo, Ontario.

W. Donald Wilson's profile page