Liar – Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
The April and final book from my Reading in Heels subscription was Liar by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen.
Avid readers will know that one of my presents for my 30th birthday from the hubby was a subscription for Reading in Heels.
He signed me up for six months and every month since November I’ve received a package through the door including a new book and some treats.
Liar book blurb
Frustrated, lonely 17-year-old Nofar has spent an uneventful summer serving ice-cream to indifferent customers.
She extends her break moping about her drab life, unwittingly irritating the bitter ex-reality TV star Avishai Milner who is waiting to be served.
When Nofar corrects his language after he complains about his wait, he insults and humiliates her.
Deeply offended, Nofar rushes out to the backyard, and Avishai-who is still waiting for his change-chases after her.
“Leave me alone!” she cries with all of her accumulated rage and hurt.
Her screams quickly draw a crowd to the scene, and to her surprise everyone is convinced that Avishai tried to sexually assault her.
Now, for the first time in her life, Nofar finds herself the centre of attention.
She is lavished with support from the community and the media, who rally round her as the victim of a scandalous attempted assault.
Nofar, giddy with newfound power and acceptance, finds that lies slip easily from her tongue, trapping her in a moral dilemma with devastating consequences.
My overall thoughts of Liar
Nofar is only one of many liars within this book.
There’s also Lavi pretending to attend military screening and Raymonde adopting her dead friend’s identity.
The characters make up stories out of loneliness, boredom, and desire to be noticed and accepted.
In our fast-paced digital world we now live in I think this is becoming an increasing problem with people trying to outdo each other and appear to be “living their best life”.
I’m sure most of us will never make an innocent person face prison time because of our lies, but all the tiny white lies and half-truths can be such a minor daily occurrence that we never give them a second thought.
How many white lies have you told today?
As a sociologist and a former journalist I enjoyed the probing of this question: where is the line drawn between harmless white lies, told to be more likeable and polite, and lies that become socially unacceptable and morally unbearable?
Liar does this with wonderful flair and keen knowledge of human behaviour.
Reading this story which centres around a false sexual assault accusation in light of the recent #MeToo movement was really interesting.
Liar avoids condemnation or moral judgement, and while Gundar-Goshen does capture the way our society fuels gossip and makes nicely crafted stories more attractive than truth, for me it felt more of a nuanced insight into the nature of lying.
I found it quite fascinating to see how easily lies can tumble out of people’s mouths and how much of a tangled web you can weave from just one little omission.
Liar is well worth a read.
Pin this 👇🏻
Other related posts
My first Reading In Heels book review was Stories We Tell Ourselves by Sarah Françoise.
The second Reading in Heels book review was States of Passion by Nihad Sirees.
The January Reading in Heels book was The Outrun.
Here’s my thoughts on BookBub a daily special-offers service for ebooks
Keep up to date
You can also find me on Twitter @rachael_stray
Or follow my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/rachaelstrayblog/
You can see my random pictures on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/rachys2011/
And see what I’m pinning on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.co.uk/rachaelstray/
