Impostor fiction
January 15, 2023 11:03 AM Subscribe
I'm looking for book/film/tv recommendations about someone who has been missing, returns home to their family, and their family believes (rightly or wrongly) that they are somehow not the same. Especially if they are believed to be an impostor or have lost some core essence.
Or I'm also interested in variations on this, for instance they are an impostor but the family doesn't know, or they haven't gone missing but the family suddenly decides they are an impostor.
Or I'm also interested in variations on this, for instance they are an impostor but the family doesn't know, or they haven't gone missing but the family suddenly decides they are an impostor.
Available on netflix now is The Imposter about the "return" of a child who had been missing. Includes participation of family and the now(?) grown, imposter.
posted by Iteki at 11:07 AM on January 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Iteki at 11:07 AM on January 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
Law & Order SVU episode Stranger
Tana French's book The Likeness
posted by phunniemee at 11:08 AM on January 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
Tana French's book The Likeness
posted by phunniemee at 11:08 AM on January 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
Also SVU episode Bullseye but I think the imposter may have been a B plot.
posted by phunniemee at 11:15 AM on January 15, 2023
posted by phunniemee at 11:15 AM on January 15, 2023
Changeling (based on a horrific true story).
This is also a common soap opera plotline. The one that comes to mind is Season 2 of Downton Abbey, where
posted by basalganglia at 11:17 AM on January 15, 2023
This is also a common soap opera plotline. The one that comes to mind is Season 2 of Downton Abbey, where
one episode features
"Cousin Patrick" appearing out of nowhere, totally disfigured, trying to convince the family that he is the heir, before abruptly disappearing never to be mentioned again.posted by basalganglia at 11:17 AM on January 15, 2023
Also, the various iterations of Anastasia
posted by basalganglia at 11:17 AM on January 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by basalganglia at 11:17 AM on January 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
the show Homeland
posted by raisindebt at 11:17 AM on January 15, 2023
posted by raisindebt at 11:17 AM on January 15, 2023
The Franz Pokler chapter of Gravity's Rainbow deals with this theme.
posted by xxx9038709992203 at 11:19 AM on January 15, 2023
posted by xxx9038709992203 at 11:19 AM on January 15, 2023
Pet Sematary immediately comes to mind.
posted by nkknkk at 11:19 AM on January 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by nkknkk at 11:19 AM on January 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
Sommersby with Richard Gere and Jodie Foster. It was based on a French film The Return of Martin Guerre which was based on a book by Natalie Zemon Davis.
posted by soelo at 11:26 AM on January 15, 2023 [9 favorites]
posted by soelo at 11:26 AM on January 15, 2023 [9 favorites]
Little Face by Sophie Hannah is about a woman who thinks her baby is an imposter. Creeped me right out.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 11:26 AM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 11:26 AM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
There is a long-lost family member that returns in There Will Be Blood.
posted by crossswords at 11:30 AM on January 15, 2023
posted by crossswords at 11:30 AM on January 15, 2023
In a Downton.Abbey one episode features a fiance/cousin believe drowned on the Titanic wreck returning. I think they decided he was an.imposter because he just lind of goes away never to be seen again.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 11:31 AM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 11:31 AM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Brat Farrer by Josephine Tey
The Great Impersonation by E. Phillips Oppenheim
Maybe The Scapegoat by Daphne Du Maurier although I don't think that impersonation happens after a disappearance, it's a deliberate identity swap.
posted by Ballad of Peckham Rye at 11:31 AM on January 15, 2023 [6 favorites]
The Great Impersonation by E. Phillips Oppenheim
Maybe The Scapegoat by Daphne Du Maurier although I don't think that impersonation happens after a disappearance, it's a deliberate identity swap.
posted by Ballad of Peckham Rye at 11:31 AM on January 15, 2023 [6 favorites]
Annihilation, film and book.
Not to be missed (pun intended) on this subject.
posted by desert exile at 11:33 AM on January 15, 2023 [4 favorites]
Not to be missed (pun intended) on this subject.
posted by desert exile at 11:33 AM on January 15, 2023 [4 favorites]
Olivier Olivier. The plot of this fictional film predates the terrific non-fiction The Imposter by 30 years. They're so similar it's uncanny. (Looks like it's on Youtube.)
posted by dobbs at 11:35 AM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by dobbs at 11:35 AM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
The Burning of Bridget Cleary is a nonfiction book about an Irish woman who disappeared for a few days. When she returned, her family thought she had been replaced by a fairy and ended up killing her in their efforts to get rid of the fairy.
posted by FencingGal at 11:37 AM on January 15, 2023
posted by FencingGal at 11:37 AM on January 15, 2023
Another variation - in L. M. Montgomery's Anne's House of Dreams, Leslie Moore's abusive husband is thought to be lost at sea, then seemingly returns with a severe brain injury. When many years later he receives corrective surgery they learn he is a different man (a cousin with a strong physical resemblance).
posted by Ballad of Peckham Rye at 11:38 AM on January 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Ballad of Peckham Rye at 11:38 AM on January 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
Oh, and I believe the The Imposter movie was made after the director read this New Yorker article, which was linked on MeFi way back when: The Chameleon.
posted by dobbs at 11:58 AM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by dobbs at 11:58 AM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
The Boy on the Bus- kinda obscure literary novel about a woman who has a strange sense that the boy who gets off the school bus one day is not her son.
posted by Gravel at 12:03 PM on January 15, 2023
posted by Gravel at 12:03 PM on January 15, 2023
The OA.
posted by miles1972 at 12:26 PM on January 15, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by miles1972 at 12:26 PM on January 15, 2023 [4 favorites]
The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart. It borrows heavily from (and even references) Tey's Brat Farrar, mentioned above, but is enjoyable all the same.
posted by Athanassiel at 12:26 PM on January 15, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Athanassiel at 12:26 PM on January 15, 2023 [4 favorites]
The Tichborne Claimant. Not fiction, I guess. Tom Castro, the Implausible Imposter by Jorge Luis Borges riffs on the theme.
Lord Greystoke.
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:31 PM on January 15, 2023
Lord Greystoke.
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:31 PM on January 15, 2023
The Golden Age mystery writer, Patricia Wentworth, liked this trope. It combines well with one of her other favourite devices, real or fake lost memory, for both "is this person different because they lost their memory or because they're an impostor?" and "someone doesn't know themself if they are Person X".
The Traveller Returns [a woman was declared dead in the scramble for Britons to evacuate France as the Germans invaded- when she comes back, are the changes in her due to living under the Nazis or to her being an impostor?] is probably the closest match for this question, though The Case of William Smith [protagonist has lost his memory and can't work out why people are trying to kill him] has parts where you see other characters interacting with him that also fits.
posted by Shark Hat at 12:40 PM on January 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
The Traveller Returns [a woman was declared dead in the scramble for Britons to evacuate France as the Germans invaded- when she comes back, are the changes in her due to living under the Nazis or to her being an impostor?] is probably the closest match for this question, though The Case of William Smith [protagonist has lost his memory and can't work out why people are trying to kill him] has parts where you see other characters interacting with him that also fits.
posted by Shark Hat at 12:40 PM on January 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
Les Revenants
posted by Tandem Affinity at 12:42 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Tandem Affinity at 12:42 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Father’s Arcane Daughter, by the incomparable E.L. Konigsberg.
posted by infinitewindow at 12:52 PM on January 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by infinitewindow at 12:52 PM on January 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen.
posted by neushoorn at 1:02 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by neushoorn at 1:02 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
I just wrote a short story on exactly this theme: will return to post here if it finds a publisher!
posted by Sheydem-tants at 1:28 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Sheydem-tants at 1:28 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Invaders from Mars.
posted by Splunge at 1:33 PM on January 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
Invaders from Mars.
posted by Splunge at 1:33 PM on January 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode Whispers has a twist on this trope.
posted by creepygirl at 1:39 PM on January 15, 2023
posted by creepygirl at 1:39 PM on January 15, 2023
Goodnight Mommy - 2014
posted by wellifyouinsist at 1:52 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by wellifyouinsist at 1:52 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Anything related to The Stepford Wives would fit the bill.
posted by matrixclown at 2:15 PM on January 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by matrixclown at 2:15 PM on January 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
Honoré de Balzac's novelette Colonel Chabert offers a variation on the theme: a Napoleonic officer is severely wounded in battle, presumed dead, and buried in a mass grave, but he survives, extricates himself, and is nursed back to health. Some years later he returns to Paris to discover his wife remarried to a nobleman; she refuses to accept that he is truly her first husband—presumably because she values status and money over truth.
The Return of Martin Guerre has been mentioned, but there's an inaccuracy above. The movie wasn't based on the book by Natalie Zemon Davis. She had been thinking of writing on the case, then heard that Daniel Vigne and Jean-Claude Carrière were planning a movie about it. She got in touch with them and was hired as historical consultant; in the course of that work she decided to write a book about it.
posted by brianogilvie at 2:47 PM on January 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
The Return of Martin Guerre has been mentioned, but there's an inaccuracy above. The movie wasn't based on the book by Natalie Zemon Davis. She had been thinking of writing on the case, then heard that Daniel Vigne and Jean-Claude Carrière were planning a movie about it. She got in touch with them and was hired as historical consultant; in the course of that work she decided to write a book about it.
posted by brianogilvie at 2:47 PM on January 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
Days of Our Lives
posted by Sassyfras at 2:59 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Sassyfras at 2:59 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
The Addams Family (1991)
posted by AbelMelveny at 3:01 PM on January 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by AbelMelveny at 3:01 PM on January 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
Agatha Christie used this a few times; the only one I can think of right now is Cat Among the Pigeons, but there are others.
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:59 PM on January 15, 2023
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:59 PM on January 15, 2023
One of my novels, The Thief on the Winged Horse, features a main character claiming to be a long lost relative, after a family rift pre dating his birth. The other characters humour him but suspect he's an imposter.
God knows how I forgot I'd played with this trope when I was listing examples above.
posted by Ballad of Peckham Rye at 4:18 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
God knows how I forgot I'd played with this trope when I was listing examples above.
posted by Ballad of Peckham Rye at 4:18 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Short story- Shirley Jackson’s “Louisa, Please Come Home”
posted by The AhForgetIt Tendency at 4:27 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by The AhForgetIt Tendency at 4:27 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Impostor (2001 film), which is one of my favorite PK Dick adaptations.
Six Degrees of Separation, which falls into the "variations" part of your post, about someone who claims to be close to the family. A stellar turn by all present, especially a 1993 Will Smith.
posted by Gorgik at 5:05 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Six Degrees of Separation, which falls into the "variations" part of your post, about someone who claims to be close to the family. A stellar turn by all present, especially a 1993 Will Smith.
posted by Gorgik at 5:05 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Here Lies Daniel Tate by Cristin Terrill.
posted by Constance Mirabella at 5:13 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Constance Mirabella at 5:13 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, a 1970's BBC series based on a series of novels by David Nobbs.
Sick of his marriage, his family and the daily grind of his job, Reginald Perrin comes up with the only logical solution for such a deep midlife crisis: He fakes his own death. After various attempts at creating a new life, Reginald adopts a disguise and returns to his old life to find that nothing much has changed. He even re-marries his wife, Elizabeth, after wooing her at his funeral, and he gets a job at his former company, where he manages his own memorial fund. Eventually Reginald tires of being someone else and reveals his true self.
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 5:38 PM on January 15, 2023
Sick of his marriage, his family and the daily grind of his job, Reginald Perrin comes up with the only logical solution for such a deep midlife crisis: He fakes his own death. After various attempts at creating a new life, Reginald adopts a disguise and returns to his old life to find that nothing much has changed. He even re-marries his wife, Elizabeth, after wooing her at his funeral, and he gets a job at his former company, where he manages his own memorial fund. Eventually Reginald tires of being someone else and reveals his true self.
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 5:38 PM on January 15, 2023
Another Martin Guerre book is The Wife of Martin Guerre by Janet Lewis, from 1941. I liked this book a lot.
FYI are you all aware that the Martin Guerre story is based on a true court case from 16th century France?
posted by vunder at 5:43 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
FYI are you all aware that the Martin Guerre story is based on a true court case from 16th century France?
posted by vunder at 5:43 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Oh, also, there is No Man of Her Own, sort of remade as Mrs. Winterbourne. They are based on the book I Married A Dead Man.
posted by gudrun at 6:29 PM on January 15, 2023
posted by gudrun at 6:29 PM on January 15, 2023
The 2006 film The Prestige, about rival Edwardian magicians, isn’t exactly this but has a little bit of the same vibe in one storyline. If you plan to watch it, avoid spoilers.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 8:37 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by pseudostrabismus at 8:37 PM on January 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
The Tenth Man by Graham Greene happens in the chaos of post war France, and ultimately involves two people with pretend identities.
posted by mark k at 12:19 AM on January 16, 2023
There's a man who returns to his home, but due to shame at saving his own skin of during the war pretends to be someone else rather than evict the current residents. Later a man impersonating him arrives to try and take possession of the house.
posted by mark k at 12:19 AM on January 16, 2023
I came to recommend The Family too. Absolutely wonderful show; I was crushed that it was not renewed.
posted by BibiRose at 4:33 AM on January 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by BibiRose at 4:33 AM on January 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
At least two of Tasha Alexander's Lady Emily mysteries have characters who are or are suspected of being imposters: The Counterfeit Heiress and A Terrible Beauty. In the latter, a man purports to be the main characters husband who was believed dead.
Imposters and/or people with hidden identities and/or relationships are of course huge in traditional mysteries. I've just been through three or four modern books and a TV show that use these devices but mostly without the pretense being suspected, or only very lowkey suspected until they lead to the solution. In the two by Alexander, it's up front. I bet there are more like that amond contemporary mysteries.
posted by BibiRose at 4:42 AM on January 16, 2023
Imposters and/or people with hidden identities and/or relationships are of course huge in traditional mysteries. I've just been through three or four modern books and a TV show that use these devices but mostly without the pretense being suspected, or only very lowkey suspected until they lead to the solution. In the two by Alexander, it's up front. I bet there are more like that amond contemporary mysteries.
posted by BibiRose at 4:42 AM on January 16, 2023
In the “variations on the theme” pile: Deceptions (twins exchange places for a short time and one of them dies while pretending to be the other).
posted by 2 cats in the yard at 7:31 AM on January 16, 2023
posted by 2 cats in the yard at 7:31 AM on January 16, 2023
Oh! The excellent TV series Orphan Black has some sprinkles of this where Tatiana Maslany plays about 12 human clones with vastly different personalities. There are scenes where she plays, for instance, “Sarah pretending to be Beth”, or “Helena pretending to be Sarah-playing-Beth” and so on, and some tense moments when that doesn’t quite fool the other characters.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 8:18 AM on January 16, 2023
posted by pseudostrabismus at 8:18 AM on January 16, 2023
If "person is replaced by their twin" counts, Ringer (2011) was a show on The CW with Sarah Michelle Gellar.
posted by Pronoiac at 12:12 PM on January 16, 2023
posted by Pronoiac at 12:12 PM on January 16, 2023
Don Draper's story arc in Mad Men has elements of this.
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 6:40 PM on January 17, 2023
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 6:40 PM on January 17, 2023
Only Daughter by Anna Snoekstra
Good As Gone by Amy Gentry
posted by socksandsushi at 8:25 PM on January 22, 2023
Good As Gone by Amy Gentry
posted by socksandsushi at 8:25 PM on January 22, 2023
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posted by kevinbelt at 11:05 AM on January 15, 2023 [15 favorites]