Imagine a situation wherein your identity is taken away from you. That you have to, from one sudden day, become another person. That is exactly what happens in 'The Scapegoat'. An evening in Paris, a chance meeting with a frenchman who looks exactly like him, and John’s life turns topsy turvy. From an Englishman, he becomes a Frenchman ; from a bored professor who taught French history, he becomes a French landlord; from a loner he becomes a family man, from a life without worries and troubles he gets into one which is full of it. The story is about how John manages to get into the skin of Jean deComte, how he discovers past one by one, constructing it bit by bit, as in a jig saw puzzle, from the daily conversations, observations and many things by chance. How he slowly , sometimes suddenly discovers that Paul is the brother, Renee brother’s wife , Marie Noel , his daughter , Bella his mistress, __ his wife , the servants …. The book is a real page turner. Breathtakingly pacy.