Book Of Lies - Softcover

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.

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.