The Impostors: A Novel

"All the world's a stage...From slapstick and laugh-out-loud to dry and satirical, Balding uses wit in all its forms to tell a story of lies and fa ades that, refreshingly, shows us the lighter side of deception...With a host of colourful characters, and plenty of secrets to uncover, THE IMPOSTORS is a hilarious look at the human capacity for lies, deception and fantasy."--N. J. Crosskey, author of Poster Boy

"For everyone, this is a very funny book. But, if you're an aficionado of philosophy, it's a very, very funny book... . The hero, the improbably named Will Power (the first signal of some deeper meaning?), is an unsuccessful aspiring actor, who signs up with a theatrical agency with a standout Unique Selling Point: it sends its thespians out to play fictional parts in the real world, not in films or plays... . The plot, peopled with delightfully eccentric characters firmly rooted in middle class England, belts along at a hilarious and fast pace that brought back memories of Phillip King farces, although this modern version is more intellectual and wittier than these relics from the fifties and sixties... . There's a laugh in every line, or at least in every paragraph. So much for the comic novel; what about the philosophy? Who are we? Why are we here? Does it matter? If we are pretending to be someone else, are we really that person? Or, if we are being ourselves, are we really pretending? Is philosophy merely a parlour game, or should we take it seriously. Is existentialist angst a fad? Or maybe a hobby? Was Freud a fraud? Was Sartre a swindler? Like a good philosopher, Mr. Balding asks all these questions, and many others. And like a good philosopher, he doesn't answer any. A book to make you think. Nice work An outstanding novel and a real pleasure to read."--James Gault, The Voice of Literature