The Lying Tongue - Hardcover

Wilson, Andrew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743293975 ISBN 13: 9780743293976

Publisher: Atria, 2007

Synopsis

Relocating to Venice upon completing his university education, Adam Woods becomes the personal assistant to a famous elderly expatriate novelist, whose biography Adam secretly pens before the eccentric writer discovers him and launches a psychological contest to determine how the biography will end. A first novel. 50,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

Andrew Wilson has follwed Beautiful Shadow, his stunning biography about Patricia Highsmith, with his debut novel, The Lying Tongue, a book that follows in Highsmith's own tradition of plot twists and psychological conundrums.

Adam Woods arrives in Venice from England to take a job and work on his novel. The job quickly evaporates, so he finds another, as amanuensis to a reclusive old author, Gordon Crace. Things start out in a straightforward manner. The author is eccentric, to say the least, but after tidying up the place and perusing the fine art collection, Adam settles in. Crace has written one book, refuses to talk about it and tells Adam that he doesn't want his authorial life even mentioned. It is over.

The only thing we know about Adam is that he just graduated from college and his love affair ended badly. We subsequently find out that when his girlfriend broke up with him he raped her to show her how much she really wanted to be with him. Enter Adam, the sinister creep. That is just the beginning of what we find out about him, about Gordon and what they are both capable of in this revelatory tale of two truly despicable people. After finding two interesting--and damning--letters among Gordon's castabout papers, Adam decides to abandon his novel and write Crace's biography.

Wilson keeps us guessing as Adam leaves Gordon for a week, pleading a need to attend his grandmother's funeral. He goes back to England to head off another biographer, to snoop around to see what she has gleaned, and to do a bit of research on his own. Things do not go exactly as planned, but Adam is more than equal to whatever heinous act it takes to advance his own cause. When he returns to Venice and Gordon, the creep factor increases dramatically and ends in a crafty and perfect conclusion, one that the reader is not prepared for... which makes it that much better. --Valerie Ryan

About the Author:

Andrew Wilson is the author of Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize and won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best biography. He has written for most of Britain's national newspapers, including The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and the Daily Mail. He lives in London.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atria
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0743293975
• ISBN 13: 9780743293976
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320