A WINNER OF THE 2021 BETTY TRASK AWARDS SHORTLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE 2021
Swansby's New Encyclopaedic Dictionary is riddled with fictitious entries known as mountweazels penned by Peter Winceworth, a man wishing to make his lasting mark back in 1899. It's up to young intern Mallory to uncover these mountweazels before the dictionary can be digitised for modern readers.
Lost in Winceworth's imagination - a world full of meaningless words - will Mallory finally discover the secret to living a meaningful life?
'I have just read Eley Williams's forthcoming novel The Liar's Dictionary, a singular, hilarious, word-drunk novel, which I suspect will be seen in the future as a classic comic novel. -- David Hayden' - Irish Times
'This tale of lexical intrigues is an absolute joy to read! It's gloriously inventive and playful, but with just the right amount of heart.' -- Lucy Scholes
'The Liar's Dictionary is deft and clever, refreshing and rewarding ... Words and meaning are of paramount importance in this novel. Williams's naming conventions are Dickensian in their symbolism ... Williams is an assured and satisfying writer, her language rich and intricate and her characters rounded enough to be sympathetic and lampoonist enough to be terribly funny. Her writing owes something to Wodehouse but more to Waugh in his most amusing of disgruntled humours. In both storylines, there is a mystery to be uncovered and a dramatic - and violent - event to be endured. In neither are these the main focus. Rather, it is the connection between Mallory and Winceworth, as we watch each struggle with love, life and speaking their mind, that makes the book so delightful.' - Literary Review
Author
About Eley Williams
Eley Williams is a British writer. Her debut collection of prose, Attrib. and Other Stories, was awarded the Republic of Consciousness Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize 2018.
She teaches at Royal Holloway, University of London and supervises Jungftak, a journal for contemporary prose poetry.
