Writing
I write fiction in English and French. Archaeology, religion and the history of ideas often provide the material, but the books themselves belong to different worlds: contemporary thrillers, short fiction and poetry.
Archaeology thrillers
Iraq, 2004. Archaeologist Mina Osman discovers a cuneiform tablet whose significance draws her into a pursuit stretching from looted Iraqi sites to Israel, Cambridge and beyond.
The novel is contemporary rather than historical. Its archaeology, ancient texts and religious traditions form the machinery of the thriller rather than its backdrop.
Iraq, 2006. A series of unexplained massacres, a mysterious engraving and the shrines of the prophet Daniel draw Mina into a conflict surrounding an ancient Gnostic tradition.
The Bulgarian edition appeared first. The original English manuscript is currently being revised for a new submission.
Research & fiction
I am an archaeologist who writes thrillers, not a novelist attempting to reconstruct an entire historical period. The stories take place in the modern world, but artefacts, manuscripts, legends and disputed interpretations of the past can alter what the characters believe is possible.
The research is deliberately deeper than what reaches the page. Its purpose is to make the fictional world convincing, not to turn the novel into a lecture. The most interesting point is often where evidence stops and uncertainty begins.
Writing in French
Three stories written at different moments: Francesca, a disturbing tale on the banks of the Arno; Manon, a love story in old Brussels; and Myrrha, a more poetic, initiatory narrative.
ExploreA collection of poems on love and death, written over roughly twenty years. Travel, reading, irony and meditation repeatedly enter the poems without forming a single narrative voice.
ExploreLiterary representation
I am currently seeking new literary representation for my fiction. My novels and current fiction projects are available for representation and future publication. Earlier editions of The 13th Tablet and The Snake of Babylon form part of their publication history and do not reflect their current representation status.
My current non-fiction project, Echoes of Antiquity, is represented by Zeitgeist, which is presently seeking a publisher for the book.
A different use of the past