Book Of Lies

Life on the isolated island of Guernsey can be tough, but things have become particularly claustrophobic for Cat Rozier. It’s 1985: she’s fifteen and an overweight bookworm. To make matters worse, she’s just killed her best friend, the beautiful and popular Nicolette, by pushing her over the island’s most picturesque cliff. But given Nic’s unforgivable betrayal of their friendship, can we blame her?

Twenty years earlier, Cat’s uncle, Charlie Rozier, also needs a confession—but of a different kind. He believes that he was betrayed by his best friend during the Nazi occupation of the island, and now he wants the truth to come out. Through audio recordings Charlie left behind before his death and letters written by Cat’s recently deceased father, Émile, we piece together the secrets buried deep in the island and in the Rozier family story.

Captivating, moving and full of dark humour, The Book of Lies takes us on a lively journey with two narrators whose unique voices we will not easily forget. Horlock expertly captures the thornier side of adolescence as well as the defiance and anger of a scorned man in this brilliant debut novel about the pain of growing up, the histories we all harbour—and revenge.