On the English Channel island of Guernsey, a teenage girls Mean Girls-like experience pushes her to murder her best friend in a scandal, she will discover, that mirrors her uncles previously unknown story from the days of the islands Nazi occupation during WWII. Told through the voices of fifteen-year-old Cat Rozier and her long-dead Uncle Charlieknown to Cat only by the audio recordings he left behindThe Book of Lies lucidly illuminates the interior lives of a scorned modern girl with attitude and a defiant, faded man. With echoes of Nicole Krausss The History of Love and Jennifer McMahons Promise Not to Tell, Mary Horlocks stunning debut novel is an unforgettable exploration of aspiration, anguish, and rebellion.
Life on the tiny island of Guernsey has just become a whole lot harder for fifteen-year-old Cat Rozier. She's gone from model pupil to murderer, but she swears it's not her fault. Apparently it's all the fault of history.
A new arrival at Cat's high school in 1984, the beautiful and instantly popular Nicolette inexplicably takes Cat under her wing. The two become inseparable?going to parties together, checking out boys, and drinking whatever liquor they can shoplift. But a perceived betrayal sends them spinning apart, and Nic responds with cruel, over-the-top retribution.
Cat's recently deceased father, Emile, dedicated his adult life to uncovering the truth about the Nazi occupation of Guernsey?from Churchill's abandonment of the island to the stories of those who resisted?in hopes of repairing the reputation of his older brother, Charlie. Through Emile's letters and Charlie's words?recorded on tapes before his own death? a ?confession? takes shape, revealing the secrets deeply woven into the fabric of the island . . . and into the Rozier family story.
