The Book of Lies by Mary Horlock, Text Publishing, $32.95.
Like many 15-year-old girls, Catherine Rozier has a flare for the dramatic and a loose association with the truth, so did she really, as she claims, kill her best friend?
It’s 1985 and Catherine lives on the island of Guernsey, a place that suffered terribly under the Nazi occupation.
Her father’s brother, Charlie Rozier, was just 12 when thousands of German boots goose-stepped into town, marching Charlie towards the guilt and shame that he would live with all his life.
With a father who’s an “expert on Guernsey’s guilty past”, fat, smart, and insecure Catherine gradually discovers the truth; that sometimes the guilty are innocent and the innocent guilty, and that those who turn a blind eye can be just as much to blame.
Catherine’s teenage voice rings true — she’s funny, difficult, annoying and a joy, the first person in her family to learn and bravely confront a generation of lies.
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