Impostors - Sarah Burton

A high-school dropout who worked as a respected professor of physics and an army deserter who served with distinction as a priest, a surgeon, a schoolteacher and a psychiatrist. An Englishman christened Archibald and a black American born hundreds of miles from the nearest teepee, both of whom were revered as "Red Indian" heroes. Several men who were in fact women - and who fought as soldiers, or worked as doctors or craftsmen when such professions were closed to their sex. And the pretender to the Russian throne who, despite actually being a fugitive monk, became Tsar and ruled rather well, until he met a "very" grisly end.;These are just some of the fascinating characters examined in Sarah Burton's engaging investigation of lives lived as lies. More than simply an exploration of how impostors succeed and why they feel compelled literally to change their lives, this entertaining and insightful book is also a meditation on identity, truth and trust.