Top Manhattan criminal defense attorney Sam Tahar seems to have it all: fame, fortune, an enviable marriage to a prominent socialite, and two wonderful children. But his success is built on a lie, he isn't the person he pretends to be. Growing up a poor Tunisian immigrant, crammed inside the walls of a grimy Paris apartment tower, Samir Tahar seemed destined for life as either a drug dealer or a delivery man, until he decided he was going to cut through the bars of his social jail cell, even if he had to do it with his teeth. At law school in Montpelier, France, he became fast friends with Jewish student Samuel Baron. The two were inseparable until the irresistible Nina, torn between the men, ultimately chose Samuel. Samir fled to America, where he assumed Samuel's identity and background while his former friend remained stuck in a French suburb, a failed, neurotic writer seething at Samir's overseas triumphs.

Published as "L'Invention De Nos Vies" in Paris : Bernard Grasset, [2013].