• The authentic and incredible story of an archaeologist who was a fabulator in Belgium, a forger in Morocco and a desecrator in France.
• With his sharp pen, Marc Meganck combines his two passions: literature and history.

Léon Lequeux dreams of becoming a famous archaeologist. The son of a good family, elegant, intelligent and ambitious, he has everything to succeed. His eagerness and obsession with success led him to deceive, lie and trick his peers.

He went so far as to reinvent prehistory and claim to have located Atlantis. Years of wandering made a fabulator in Belgium, a forger in Morocco and a desecrator in France. The scientific world, the press and the general public would soon have only one word to describe him: mystifier!

Based on authentic accounts of the life of Léon Lequeux, this novel retraces his incredible career, dotted with astonishing swindles, and takes us, from the beginning of the 20th century, from Liège to Spiennes, from Casablanca to Paris, from Orléans to Provins...

“The atmosphere of the story is dreamlike. There are references to the great Egyptologist Jean Capart, to the treasure of Tutankhamen, to Atlantis, and so on. All the way to the climax, in Morocco, where the French colonial authorities hoist our national Léon Lequeux on a pavois, convinced that his discoveries will resurrect the Platonic myth. The luxury, the applause, the media recognition. But in Belgium, a true scientist, Edmond Rahir, had his doubts and looked into Léon's early exploits, which had all been accomplished without witnesses, and decided to investigate... »

“As well as being an adventure novel, Mystificateur! challenges and shakes us, because Marc Meganck strikes us with human invariants that are both timeless and painfully relevant today. Sadly, we've all come across Léon, immersed in bluff, impatient for recognition and power. Unable to come to terms with the long haul and the intense effort.

Léon was born under the best of auspices, ‘the son of a good family, elegant, intelligent and ambitious’. And yet... »

Born in 1975, historian Marc Meganck made literature his preferred means of expression from an early age. He has published numerous historical works, various essays, short stories and several novels, including ‘Le jour où mon père n'a plus eu le dernier mot’, published by F deville.

Urban wandering, travel, the microcosm of the neighbourhood bistros where he writes and observes our humanity; the quest for origins, our own and that of the places we occupy; cities, what they produce best and most detestable; these are just some of his favourite themes. All subjective...