Three years have passed since Gustavo, a renowned psycholinguist, last spoke to his closest friend, Daniel, who's been interned in a psychiatric ward for murdering his fiancée. When Daniel unexpectedly calls to confess the truth behind the crime, Gustavo's long-buried loyalty resurfaces and draws him into the center of a quixotic, unconventional investigation. While Daniel reveals his unsettling story through fragments of fables, novels, and historical allusions, Gustavo begins to retrace the past for clues: from their early college days exploring dust-filled libraries and exotic brothels, to Daniel's intimate attachment to his sickly younger sister and his dealings as an antiquarian book collector. As the circumstances grow increasingly macabre and intricate with every turn, an increasingly skeptical Gustavo is forced to deduce a complex series of events from allegories that are more real than police reports, and metaphors more revealing than evidence.

With sumptuous prose and haunting imagery, Gustavo Favern Patriau has crafted an unforgettable labyrinthine tale about the reality of human suffering, the healing power of stories, and the strength of fraternal bonds. The Antiquarian is a masterfully conceived, engrossing novel of murder, madness, and passion that is as entertaining as it is erudite, dark as it is illuminating.