THE LIAR by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
translated from the Hebrew by Sondra Silverston
★★★★☆
Little, Brown and Co., 2019
The Liar is a book that will make its readers uncomfortable by design; set in modern-day Israel, it follows a 17-year-old girl, Nofar, who is unremarkable in every way until one day she decides to tell a terrible lie, with far-reaching consequences. At her summer job at an ice cream parlor she has an unpleasant encounter with a local celebrity who yells at her and insults her appearance—things then escalate when Nofar falsely accuses him of attempted rape.
It’s a deeply unsettling premise, and a difficult one to pull off. How does an author tell a story about a false accusation without trivializing the reality of sexual assault? Ayelet Gundar-Goshen rises to the challenge.
You can read the rest of my review HERE on BookBrowse, and you can read a piece I wrote about the rarity of false sexual assault allegations HERE.
You can pick up a copy of The Liar (published as Liar in the UK) here on Book Depository.
pace, amore, libri 
This is on my TBR and I am SO excited to read it! It sounds fascinating.
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Yay, I hope you enjoy it!!
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Really interesting, nuanced review!
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Thanks so much!
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Great review! I loved your beyond the book piece as well. This is a book I still find myself thinking about weeks after I finished it.
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Thank you!! The Beyond the Book piece was probably my favorite of those that I’ve written so far – the research was fascinating (and infuriating) and I’m glad to have those numbers in my back pocket now.
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Yes, those are very good stats to be able to refer to!
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I’m really looking forward to picking this one up! It’s too bad the author takes it a step too far with a separate narrative thread, but the main premise just sounds too appealing to pass up. I’ll definitely be picking up a copy at some point! Great review, and your research piece is excellent as well!
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It’s such an interesting read and I hope you enjoy it! And thank you for reading my beyond the book piece as well, doing that research was fascinating!
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Great review and a great premise – I will certainly be checking this one out.
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Thanks so much! It’s a really fascinating premise and a fascinating book, I hope you enjoy it.
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Great review! I can’t help but feel hesitant over a book with a premise like this because the idea of false allegations is too often thrown around when, in fact, they’re very rare (as your second article goes into detail about). I’m glad to hear Gundar-Goshen handles it well and it is a fascinating topic to explore.
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Thank you! I think the marketing team knew how unpalatable of a premise it was – most summaries I’ve read make no mention of a false sexual assault allegation, they just say ‘Nofar tells a terrible lie,’ even though this happens literally in the first chapter. But I wanted to be upfront in addressing it as it’s a premise that makes me deeply uncomfortable as well and I want people to know what they’re signing up for with this book. I was so surprised that Gundar-Goshen was able to carry this off with as much nuance and sensitivity as she did.
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I’m so anxious about reading this, but your review definitely makes me feel better about it!
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I would be v. curious to hear your thoughts on it!
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