The Liar's Dictionary

A WINNER OF THE 2021 BETTY TRASK AWARDS
SHORTLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE 2021
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'Joyous' SPECTATOR
'Remarkable' SUNDAY TIMES
'A playful delight. . . A glorious novel' OBSERVER

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?
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'Made me almost tearful with gratitude that a book as clever as this could give such uncomplicated pleasure . . . And when you find a book like this, you grab it, and you hold it close.' JOHN SELF

'A delight . . . As funny and vivid as Dickens, as moving and memorable as Nabokov . . . An extraordinarily large-hearted work.' THE CRITIC

'Deft and clever, refreshing and rewarding . . . 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.' LITERARY REVIEW

'[The] most exciting of young British writers . . . Williams luxuriates in words and wordplay, in definition and precision and invention . . . The Liar's Dictionary is a public joy, and Eley Williams a free-spirited literary kook with bags of potential.' BIG ISSUE

'A singular, hilarious, word-drunk novel, which I suspect will be seen in the future as a classic comic novel.' DAVID HAYDEN, IRISH TIMES

'The Liar's Dictionary is the book I was longing for . . . Positively intoxicated with the joy and wonder of language . . . Eley Williams brings erudition and playfulness - and lovely sweetness - to every page.' BENJAMIN DREYER, New York Times bestselling author of DREYER'S ENGLISH

'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