Editors Reads Verdict
Highsmith's most existential novel — set in Tunisia, a meditation on moral dissolution in the heat, and the question of whether an act you're uncertain you committed is one you're responsible for.
What We Loved
- The North African setting is rendered with unusual specificity and heat
- The philosophical dimension — does it matter if you did it? — is genuinely unsettling
- Highsmith's coolest, most detached prose style
Minor Drawbacks
- The most deliberately slow of her novels — requires patience
- The absence of conventional thriller mechanics will frustrate some readers
Key Takeaways
- → Moral dissolution as something the heat and expatriate displacement accelerates
- → The question of culpability when certainty is impossible
- → Highsmith's most Camus-influenced novel — the murder in the sun
| Author | Patricia Highsmith |
|---|---|
| Publisher | W. W. Norton |
| Pages | 256 |
| Published | January 1, 1969 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Crime Fiction, Psychological Thriller, Literary Fiction |
| Difficulty | Advanced |
| Best For | Highsmith fans; readers who prefer literary to genre thriller; fans of Bowles and Camus |
Howard Ingham has come to Hammamet, Tunisia to work on a film script. He waits for his fiancée Ina, who cables to say she is delayed, then cables again to say she is not coming, then stops writing altogether. A colleague from home, Jensen, arrives and dies — possibly by suicide. And one night, in the dark of his bungalow, something moves, and Ingham strikes out with his portable typewriter, and something falls from the window into the darkness below.
He doesn’t know if he hit anyone. He doesn’t look. The next day everything appears normal.
The Tremor of Forgery is Highsmith’s most existential novel — the question at its centre is not whether Ingham committed a crime but whether it matters to him that he might have, and what it means about a person when the answer is: not very much. The Tunisian heat, the foreignness, the expatriate freedom from the social network that normally makes guilt legible — all of it accelerates a moral dissolution that might have taken years in New Jersey. Critics have compared it to Camus’s The Stranger, and the comparison is not excessive.
Reading Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "The Tremor of Forgery" about?
Howard Ingham, an American writer, has come to Tunisia to work on a screenplay. His fiancée doesn't arrive. A colleague dies ambiguously. One night Ingham may have killed an intruder with a typewriter. He isn't certain. Set almost entirely in Hammamet, Tunisia, this is Highsmith's most existential novel — the question of whether Ingham committed a crime becomes less important than the question of whether it matters to him that he might have.
Who should read "The Tremor of Forgery"?
Highsmith fans; readers who prefer literary to genre thriller; fans of Bowles and Camus
What are the key takeaways from "The Tremor of Forgery"?
Moral dissolution as something the heat and expatriate displacement accelerates The question of culpability when certainty is impossible Highsmith's most Camus-influenced novel — the murder in the sun
Is "The Tremor of Forgery" worth reading?
Highsmith's most existential novel — set in Tunisia, a meditation on moral dissolution in the heat, and the question of whether an act you're uncertain you committed is one you're responsible for.
Ready to Read The Tremor of Forgery?
Check the current price on Amazon.
Check Price on Amazon (paid link)Prices and availability are subject to change. See Amazon for current price.
Review last updated: