American Adulterer: From the creator of Bodyguard and Line of Duty - Couverture souple

'Brilliant...Mercurio finds a truth in JFK through fiction' Metro

Like any womanizer, the subject of this novel must go to extraordinary lengths to hide his affairs from his wife and colleagues. But this is no ordinary adulterer - he is John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States. Yet he is also a virtuous man enslaved by an uncontrollable vice. Startlingly empathetic, darkly witty and deft, American Adulterer takes inspiration from the tantalizing details surrounding President Kennedy's sex life and medical secrets to weave a provocatively intimate portrait of the man's affairs, illness, courage and idealism - and in Jack's love for his wife, recreates one of history's most fascinatingly enigmatic marriages.

'Compelling. Glacially elegant prose...depicts a man who, for all his power, remains imprisoned by desire' Financial Times

'The President's wit, courtesy, peacemaking vision and cool judgement are all here, vividly re-created, as well as courage in the face of near disabling infirmity and pain....gripping and thoughtful' Sunday Times

'The Cuban Missile Crisis is brilliantly, claustrophobically handled, and the treatment of the president's tragically premature son so riveted me that I found my head buried in the book as I walked down the street and bumped into things' Independent

Jed Mercurio trained at the University of Birmingham Medical School and practised as a junior doctor before becoming a full-time writer in 1994. As a writer, producer and director his TV credits include the highly successful shows Cardiac Arrest, Bodies, Line of Duty and Bodyguard, as well as adaptions of Frankenstein and Lady Chatterley’s Lover. He has been described by the Telegraph as ‘the most successful writer working in television today’ and by the Independent as ‘the master of British Drama’.

Mercurio is the author of three novels. His first novel, Bodies, was chosen as one of the five best debuts of 2002 by the Guardian. In 2007 Mercurio published his second novel, Ascent, the story of a fictional Soviet fighter pilot and cosmonaut set against the background of the Korean War and the Space Race. Ascent was included in the Guardian’s list of ‘1000 Novels Everyone Must Read’ and a graphic novelization, illustrated by Wesley Robins, was published in 2011. Mercurio’s most recent novel, Amercian Adulterer, a fictionalization of President John F. Kennedy's infidelities, was published in 2009.