brilliantly written erotically charged my secret history is paul therouxs tour de force it is the story of andre parent a writer a world traveller a lover of every kind of woman he chances to meet in a life as varied as a man can leadit begins with his days as a massachusetts altar boy when his first furtive sexual encounter introduces him to the thrills of leading a double life as a teenaged lifeguard andre finds himself caught between the attentions of a beautiful young student and an amorous older woman soon he is in africa where the local women are numerous easy and free and as the boy becomes a man he turns his attention to writing which brings him fame and a wife who may finally cause him to know himselfbut not before he sets up his most dangerous secret life one that any man might envy but that could cost andre parent the delicate balance that makes him who he is