ARTFEED — Contemporary Art Intelligence

Bertrand Leclair's Novel on the 'Unbelievable' Georges Pessant

publication · 2026-04-23

Bertrand Leclair's novel 'L'invraisemblable histoire de Georges Pessant' (Flammarion) revisits the true story of Georges Pessant, a notorious murderer from the early 1960s dubbed 'the horrible assassin with the Simca 1000' by local press. Leclair first touched on Pessant in his 2004 novel 'Disparaître'. The book explores the relationship between fiction and truth, as Pessant himself claimed the novelist's license to distort reality. Critic Patrick Kéchichian praises the novel for its stunning alignment between narrated events and sentence rhythm.

Key facts

  • Bertrand Leclair wrote 'L'invraisemblable histoire de Georges Pessant'
  • Published by Éditions Flammarion
  • Georges Pessant was a murderer in the early 1960s
  • Local newspapers called him 'the horrible assassin with the Simca 1000'
  • Leclair previously referenced Pessant in his 2004 novel 'Disparaître'
  • The novel examines the novelist's role in appropriating true stories
  • Pessant claimed the novelist's license to distort truth
  • Patrick Kéchichian reviewed the novel for artpress

Entities

Artists

  • Bertrand Leclair
  • Georges Pessant
  • Patrick Kéchichian

Institutions

  • Éditions Flammarion
  • artpress

Sources