The Liar's Dictionary

A Novel

By: Eley Williams

Narrated by: Kristin Atherton, Jon Glover

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “You wouldn’t expect a comic novel about a dictionary to be a thriller too, but this one is. In fact, [it] is also a mystery, love story (two of them) and cliffhanging melodrama.” —The New York Times Book Review

An award-winning novel that chronicles the charming misadventures of a lovelorn Victorian lexicographer and the young woman put on his trail a century later to root out his misdeeds while confronting questions of her own sexuality and place in the world.

Mountweazel n. the phenomenon of false entries within dictionaries and works of reference. Often used as a safeguard against copyright infringement.

In the final year of the nineteenth century, Peter Winceworth is toiling away at the letter S for Swansby’s multivolume Encyclopaedic Dictionary. But his disaffection with his colleagues compels him to assert some individual purpose and artistic freedom, and he begins inserting unauthorized, fictitious entries. In the present day, Mallory, the publisher’s young intern, starts to uncover these mountweazels in the process of digitization and through them senses their creator’s motivations, hopes, and desires. More pressingly, she’s also been contending with a threatening, anonymous caller who wants Swansby’s staff to “burn in hell.” As these two narratives coalesce, Winceworth and Mallory, separated by one hundred years, must discover how to negotiate the complexities of life’s often untrustworthy, hoax-strewn, and undefinable path. An exhilarating, laugh-out-loud debut, The Liar’s Dictionary celebrates the rigidity, fragility, absurdity, and joy of language while peering into questions of identity and finding one’s place in the world.

The liar’s Dictionary

Unsympathetic characters. Dialogue for woman is annoying in that she digresses a great deal. It’s one thing to love words. It’s another to use them to hide behind. Found male character’s use of lisp an affectation that was unworthy of his intellect.
While it’s not my job to analyze either, I spent too much time in their company. I stayed the course since I was driving, but cannot day I’d recommend the book overall.

Not your normal twists and turns

I wasn't quite sure where it was going but after few chapters, I totally got sucked in. really a unique story.

Good story. Inconsistent volume.

The story was interesting, but the two narrator tracks were drastically different volumes and the transition between chapters was startling.

Word Salad

If words are your “jam” - this book is for you. Lots of interesting facts about words but I found the story line hard to get into and not compelling. This books strikes me as ideal for those who are passionate about the English language, but if you are looking for a story you to get lost in, you might not find it here. However it is well written and nicely narrated.

A Steak Dinner of Words

Loved the stories, the poetry, the images, and the new vocabulary. Bending words to suit purposes, to explore their origins, and to determine just how supple they are, this work simply makes you feel alive.