It is also the quality of many characters

Nothing does more to Vienna at the beginning of XX century. François-Joseph aging Emperor is broken by the suicide of his son. The Austrian capital launches body lost modernity - Expressionism, nihilisme - at the risk of losing his soul, in the eyes of some. Haley Comet approaching Earth might sign the end - and more generally the end of the world.

Nothing does more to Rome, where Leo XIII died. Its announced successor, Secretary of State Rampola, is a Liberal, who sees a bad look at the rise of the bankers of the Vatican. Secret services and the boot of the latter disorders officers put pressure on the Emperor uses his veto and facilitates the establishment of a more malleable a priori candidate, the Archbishop of Venice, future Pius X

A man will find itself at the centre of this geopolitical maelstrom, marking the advent of the modern world: Hermann Freitag, correcting a great retirement Viennese Publishing House. Swedes Henrik b. Nilsson has not chosen a James Bond as a hero of his novel "The false friend", but a citizen lambda, discreet and cowardly, good reactionary complexion, cruel fate will transform into a spy of fortune.

For the last time, the old corrector agreed to work for successful writer Boris Barsch. Except that his new book is a small bomb, which examines wisely face dark of the Eglise Freitag is the only one able to prevent its publication. Convinced it the defence of Catholicism is almost child's play. Drunk of loneliness and bitterness since the departure of his wife, he took refuge in the religion

Impressive first novel, "The false friend" doing well its title. Ridden in a dazzling ice maze, the player is surrounded of false friends. First is the name of the explosive manuscript Freitag is supposed to correct. It is also the "quality" of many characters. Starting with Signori, an attractive Italian business man, who, taking advantage of the disarray of Freitag, covers of attention to bring it to execute its black designs. The corrector turns himself into a "false friend" of the writer Barsch

The book itself is not what it seems. What losing its latin, his Austrian and his Swedish. "False friend" sounds so "Mittle-europa", that you almost forget that it is the work of a Northern author. It has all the air of a thriller, with its scholarly structure and its plot with twists and turns; and yet, the density, style, and the breath of a great literary work. Deliciously "vintage" in its form, it is very contemporary in its spirit and its comments.

Nilsson queries the history and literature to better speak of today's world. "False friend" highlights practices not always very Catholic Church, when it comes to morals and money. It shows how the abandonment and despair lead to withdrawal, intolerance. And then a sort of creeping fascism.

Bestseller in Sweden, crowned in the price of the first novel, "The false friend" takes all his promises, except perhaps at the end: his slightly messy outcome is less powerful than expected. It ends the reading out of breath and vaguely frustrated: only true false friend can leave us thus in plan