The Secret Books

Marcel Theroux Faber €14.75

Theroux’s ingenious new novel is a loose reimagining of the life of Nicholas Notovitch, a Russian journalist, author, shopkeeper and spy, who claimed to have uncovered a lost gospel detailing the missing years in the life of Jesus Christ. It may be set towards the end of the 19th century, but the novel’s central claim, that in an attempt to give meaning to our lives we’re fully prepared to overlook inconvenient facts, means that this engaging, thoughtful story is utterly of the moment. As Theroux observes: ‘It doesn’t have to be true because it feels true.’