The Book of Lies
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
On this island your friends and your enemies quickly end up the same . . .
-1985-
When fifteen-year-old Catherine sees her best friend slip from a wild cliff path she vows never to say a word. But Catherine was the last person to see her alive.
-1940-
Charlie is also holding back a secret from the adults on the island. As German soldiers arrive on Guernsey, he carries out an act of rebellion with consequences that will reach far into the future - and into Catherine's own life.
The Book of Lies is a powerful novel about friendship, love and betrayal. Weaving together two lives across the decades, it proves that no truth is as simple as it seems.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Horlock's strange and inviting debut revolves around Catherine Rozier, a plump teenager with few friends growing up in the 1980s on Guernsey island, and her proclamation that she killed her fair-weather best friend. The Nazi occupation of Guernsey left an indelible mark on the psyche of the island's inhabitants that, 40 years later, plays nearly as important a role in the novel as the antic and two-faced characters making up Horlock's ensemble. Catherine, whose father recently died, becomes close friends with the popular Nicolette, but after Catherine tells lies about an affair with a teacher and crashes a party, their friendship sours, leading to Nicolette falling to her death from a cliff and Catherine's musings about her role in the death. Catherine's narrative is embroidered by writings from her uncle, Charlie, who was held prisoner in a German concentration camp and died young. Charles's writings reveal he had a similar love-hate relationship with a friend and suffered from guilt after a family tragedy. The key question becomes, are Catherine and her uncle as guilty as they lead themselves to think? Catherine is at the same time sympathetic and off-putting, and her razor-sharp humor gives the book a pleasing, offbeat charm.
Customer Reviews
Brilliant!
Absolutely loved this book, although I am from Guernsey so probably a little biased :P