The Book of Lies

Guernsey, 1985. Fifteen-year-old Catherine Rozier has a secret she can no longer keep to herself. It’s about the night her best friend fell from the cliffs.

Twenty years earlier, Charlie Rozier stands at the edge of the same cliffs, looking for a confession of a different kind. He thinks he was betrayed by his friend during the Occupation, and now he wants the truth to come out.

This stunning debut from Mary Horlock is about the conflicts and trials of growing up, the secrets of families, and the repressed histories that we all harbour. Captivating and moving, it is a journey with two characters whose unique voices the reader will not easily forget.

Watch an introduction by Mary here.

Read the Independent review here.

Praise for The Book of Lies:

The Book of Lies delights in upsetting expectations. The joy of this ingenious debut is that, somehow, it manages to link 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.

Financial Times

An unforgettable and brilliant debut. It establishes Mary Horlock as an original, compelling and powerful new voice.

Hanif Kureishi

The difficulty of pinning down absolute truth lies behind Mary Horlock’s assured debut. 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.

Independent

A satisfyingly complex story which is entirely at ease as it shifts between the recent past and Cathy’s present, and deftly excavates the layers of betrayal and treachery that have settled on Guernsey since the German occupation … an assured debut … Horlock’s irreverent style marks the arrival of a distinctive new voice.

Sunday Business Post