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William is a dissolute book-forger. A talented writer in his own right he would rather scribble poems anonymously for an asian friend (who is becoming increasingly successful as a result), and create forgeries of Jane Austen first editions to sell to gullible collectors. He's not all bad. The money from the forgeries goes straight to homeless hostel and William's crimes don't really hurt anyone. And there are reasons William hasn't amounted to more. He did something he was ashamed of when he was a student, he drinks far too much and he can't commit to any relationships. Oh and he sees demons.Shadowy figures at the shoulder of everyone around him (except the woman who runs the hostel, she remains untouched), waiting for a moment's weakness. Or is just that William can see the suffering of the world? And then an extraordinary woman, who may just be able to save him from the world's suffering, walks into his life.This is William's own story. But who can believe a master forger?
"Memoirs of a Master Forger is a morality tale about the angels of redemption and demons of suffering that inhabit a London whose contours were mapped more than two centuries ago by William Blake. Like Blake Heaney's London is a phantasmagoria of feigning and reality located along the embankments of the Thames and in its historic pubs. The tone is world-weary, cynical, compassionate, wry, always superficial."
Kathryn Sutherland
TLS
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