Somebody Else's Life

Stephen Cooper, a middle-aged university professor who is suddenly utterly bored by his life, plots an intricate scheme with his lover. They arrange a spectacular forgery of a disappeared art relic, and in order to sell it, also craft new identities for themselves: together they become somebody else. "We move inside Cooper's chilly satisfaction as he and his lover-accomplice bring off one trick after another in the identity switching necessary to their scam. . . . And we're also brought close to the pain and rage . . . of the women whom Cooper (incorrigible to the end) deceives."-Benjamin DeMott, New York Times Book Review "An authentic and ingenious account of the ingeniously counterfeit in art and in life."-D. J. Enright "This offbeat romp intrigues with its ironic probing of life values at the same time that it provides lively entertainment."-Kirkus Reviews "An extended and absorbing mediation on the loss of integrity."-Chicago Sun-Times "Witty, sophisticated and intriguing, this tale of a forger is the genuine article: an example of the art of suspense and the suspense of art."-Jack Fuller "An entertainingly mordant psychological thriller."-Washington Times Magazine