When:
Lookups spiked on June 27, 2012.
Why:
Many obituaries of writer/director Nora Ephron, who passed away on June 26, referred to "Heartburn" - a novel about her marital breakup with journalist Carl Bernstein - as a roman à clef.
Roman à clef means "a novel in which real persons or actual events figure under disguise." The phrase was borrowed from French and means "novel with a key." Novels written in the court of Louis XIV featured characters based on real nobles, that era's celebrities - with their identities half-disguised behind fictional names.
A more recent roman à clef is the novel "Primary Colors," based on the first presidential campaign of Bill Clinton.
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Merriam-Webster unabridged
