Stuart Kelly

Spotting the mountweazels: The Liar’s Dictionary, by Eley Williams, reviewed

A 21st-century intern must uncover the traps laid by a 19th-century lexicographer in this inventive novel full of hidden jokes

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issue 11 July 2020
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  • The Liar’s Dictionary

    Eley Williams

    William Heinemann, pp. 280, £14

There is a particular sub-genre of books which are witty and erudite, comic and serious and often of a bibliophilic nature: such novels as Elaine di Rollo’s The Peachgrower’s Almanac, Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen’s The Rabbit Back Literary Society or Brock Clarke’s An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England.

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