Who You Think I Am

In a vertiginous play of mirrors between fantasy and virtual reality, Camille Laurens relates the dangerous liaisons of a woman who refuses to give up on desire. This is the story of Claire Millecam, a 48 year-old teacher and divorcee, who creates a fake social media profile to try to keep tabs on Jo, her occasional, elusive, and inconstant lover. Under the false identity of Claire Antunes, a young and beautiful 24 year-old, she starts a correspondence with Chris—pseudonym KissChris—which soon turns into an Internet love affair. WHO YOU THINK I AM is a true novel of our times that brilliantly exposes the disconnect between desire and fantasy. Social media allows us to put ourselves on display, to indulge in secrets, but above all it allows us to lie, to recreate a life, to become our own fiction—a mixture of sentimental naivety and manipulative perversity which echoes the libertine novels of the 18th century.