The Scapegoat — Daphne Du Maurier

In “a dazzlingly clever and immensely entertaining novel,” an Englishman switches lives with his doppelganger, a French count with a dysfunctional family (New York Times).

By chance, John and Jean -- one English, the other French -- meet in a provincial railway station. Their resemblance to each other is uncanny, and they spend the next few hours talking and drinking -- until at last John falls into a drunken stupor. It's to be his last carefree moment, for when he wakes, Jean has stolen his identity and disappeared. So the Englishman steps into the Frenchman's shoes, and faces a variety of perplexing roles - as owner of a chateau, director of a failing business, head of a fractious family, and master of nothing.

Gripping and complex, The Scapegoat is a masterful exploration of doubling and identity, and of the dark side of the self.

“What a magnificent thriller this is.” -- The New York Times Book Review

Praise for Daphne Du Maurier:

“No other popular writer has so triumphantly defied classification . . . She satisfied all the questionable criteria of popular fiction, and yet satisfied the exacting requirements of “real literature,” something very few novelists ever do.” ―Margaret Forster, author of Daphne Du Maurier: The Secret Life of the Renowned Storyteller

“She wrote exciting plots, she was highly skilled at arousing suspense, and she was, too, a writer of fearless originality” -- The Guardian