The Book of Lies - Softcover

Horlock, Mary

3.05

1,194 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1847678858 ISBN 13: 9781847678850

Publisher: Canongate Books, 2011

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When you live on an island as small as Guernsey, it's hard to imagine that secrets can stay secret. But they can and they do. And fifteen-year-old Catherine Rozier knows the best one yet. It's about the night her friend Nicolette disappeared on the cliffs by Clarence Batterie.

Catherine wants to take the blame for what happened, but the story she starts telling isn't hers alone. There are other people on this island who have got away with murder, and Catherine thinks it's time the truth came out. Are these just the wild imaginings of a lonely teenager? Decades earlier, someone else stood on these cliffs, at this very spot. Charlie Rozier was almost Catherine's age when Guernsey was occupied by the Germans. He trusted the one friend he shouldn't have. Did Catherine make the same mistake?

Dwelling on the dark and difficult truths hidden within a family and on an island during the Second World War, The Book of Lies spins together the ? stories told forty years apart ? of Catherine and Charlie, who come to understand that no truth is as simple as it seems.

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Review:

"This is an unforgettable and brilliant debut. It establishes Mary Horlock as an original, compelling and powerful new voice in British fiction." (Hanif Kureishi)

"Irresistibly funny and poignant...confirms Mary Horlock as a rare talent." (Marie Darrieussecq)

"Mary Horlock's authorial debut is impressive. She layers the novel with different voices, deploying Catherine, who, while disclosing her own inner longings and intimate angsts, is the novel's agent of revelation." (Scotsman)

"The misplaced loyalties that often drive the adolescent mind are expertly depicted." (Hilary Claire O’Hagan The National)

"An assured debut...Horlock's irreverent style marks the arrival of a distinctive new voice." (Sunday Business Post)

"Horlock's use of dual first-person narration lends immediacy and apparent authenticity." (Sean O’Brien Times Literary Supplement)

"Cathy's teenage voice is a joy - funny, endearing and credible, it bursts with attitude. ... Horlock has created an authentic adolescent voice and, in the process, not only illuminated the history of a small island but also thrown light on the subjectivity of history, truth and memory." (Leyla Sanai Independent)

"The joy of this ingenious debut is that, somehow, it manages to link the twin stories convincingly to create an impressive fable about the relativity of truth and the deceits that make living on a small island possible. Highly recommended." (Adrian Turpin Financial Times)

"The Book of Lies is an assured debut, and Horlock's irreverent style marks the arrival of a distinctive new voice." (Sunday Business Post)

"[a] seething, startling work." (Catherine Taylor Guardian)

Book Description:

An extraordinary portrait of life under Occupation, with two young characters that the reader will not easily forget. 'This is an unforgettable and brilliant debut. It establishes Mary Horlock as an original, compelling and powerful new voice in British fiction.' Hanif Kureishi

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