Used..LARGE SIZE SOFT COVER-WILL COMBINE BOOKS TO SAVE POSTAGEIn the turbulent political summer of 1968, the lives of four very different people become inextricably intertwined. All four are shape-shifters, identity-switchers, two for criminal reasons, two for blameless purposes of survival. One of the four is a smooth con man, a charmer similar in style to Bernie Madoff, stylish, gentlemanly, classy and unencumbered by a conscience. Another is an equally charming and even smoother serial killer who never arouses suspicion. The four lives are scattered but are drawn back together in Manhattan in 1996 for the trial of the Vanderbilt claimant and a tense thriller climax. International Dublin Literary Award Nominee Nominated by: The State Library of South Australia, Adelaide Publisher of nominated edition: HarperCollins Australia Nomination Citation: A dark and delicious tale which begins as a complex riddle of identity and class divisions in wonderfully drawn settings in France, Australia and Manhattan. The story never becomes too cryptic though. Our panel highly recommended this novel. Australian reviews of THE CLAIMANT Here is one of the most unusual fictional postscripts to Australia?s involvement in Vietnam, besides being a vivid, ambivalent snapshot of American politics of the 1960s as galvanized by the war?.Hospital combines psychological acuity with command of a range of settings, from luxurious to grunge, that will tempt those who might wish to bring the novel to the screen. In the meantime, readers have a big book to enjoy. Sydney Morning Herald The Claimant shares its vibrantly beating heart with the implications and intricacies of privelege, the iron grip of lineage, the complexities of naming and identity?and the persistence of the essential self?