Lies

A very interesting novel. I kept wanting to underline passages concerning lies and truth. The anthropological details were wonderful, and I liked the lightly sketched characterisations. Some digressions seemed a little unnecessary - particularly a subplot about a Russian couple that didn't quite go anywhere, and a story of a long-ago battle that was interesting but not wholly relevant. Overall I suppose I'd call this novel uneven but worth the draggy bits. I was genuinely moved towards the end, [...]

This is superficial, really, but I was slightly annoyed that one of the two narratives was written entirely in italics. Since the narratives are divided into separate chapters, I didn't think this was entirely necessary and felt like everything was being emphasized.As for the story itself, I don't know say in a more erudite fashion that it just didn't do it for me. I probably need to take more time to really think about the novel, but at first read it didn't really strike a chord.

It was interesting reading about the work and studies of an anthropologist, but I didn't really get in to the whole narrative history of this family I didn't like how each character seemed so locked in to their particular role, I just guess I didn't really care that much for them. Maybe I'd rather read a whole book about the Russian couple.

Parts of this were beautiful beyond explanation, and others I found myself skipping entirely. I think I appreciated it more when I finished reading it than during the actual reading. Stories, and, in some ways, lies, are a part of each of us.

I enjoy dual perspective novels on the whole, but Enrique de Heriz's Lies, which I read for the Guatemala stop on my Around the World in 80 Books challenge, did not really do anything for me. Serena's sections of the narrative felt overwritten, and I felt detached from both perspectives, quite unable to get into it. I thought that this sounded as though it would be right up my street, as I love books about exploration and mysteries, but it did not live up to its premise. The prose flowed well en [...]

The way the story deploys is quite interesting. However, sometimes I felt tired of all these descriptions.

An edited version of this article was first published as Book Review: Lies by Enrique de Hériz on Blogcritics.How much do you care about the truth? How far are you willing to go to uncover the truth? Conversely, how far are you willing to cover up a lie? These are just some of the questions that this multi-layered complex book tries to answer. This book is the story of Isabel Azuera, who is an aged anthropologist, and her family. At the age of 69, she suddenly announces to her family that she i [...]

Mid 4. This is an enchanting investigation into the nature of truth, where every event, in its retelling, passes into family lore and history through the creative processes of each narrator. As such, the mistakenly reported death of Isabel Garcia Luna in the depths of the Guatemalan jungle enables her to reflect on how her own husband's tales about their own famly history may have shaped their own children's lives. To her mind 'the past, like the future, can only be imagined'. Isabel's own profe [...]

I took a long time to read this book, and half wondered from time to time if I was going to ever finish it. But every time I picked it up from under the rest of the pile beside the bed, I glanced at what I'd most recently read in it and wanted to know what was going to happen next. So, while I can't agree with the quote on the cover ('I was gripped from the start '), I do agree that it's worth reading.An anthropologist who specialises in death customs is herself mistakenly thought dead. When she [...]

Very well-written, thought-provoking novel examining the mythology that families and other groups create and pass on. The narration alternates between the older woman anthropologist who is mistakenly thought to be dead (and is in no hurry to correct that mistake), and her daughter back home in Spain, who obsesses about learning the truth about her family's history. I especially like the sections focusing on the mother; what a fascinating character the author has created here. Some of the family [...]

Always nice to read a novel from a different country and this one from Spanish writer de Heriz is very good. It deals with the lies that families tell each other through the generations - to amuse, to mislead, or to preserve family ties. It is good how the various lies over the years all come together at the end when the presumed dead mother of this family is reunited with her husband and children.

Quite interesting until the last 10% which felt pretty weak -- or anyway very different from the rest -- and the final handful of pages left me feeling very blah. All of the sudden all the characters seemed to resolve their personal issues, but I didn't see any real reason for the change. Maybe poor translation was the problem, though the language itself seemed to flow nicely. Enjoyable overall, just all a little sudden and pat at the end, and that's colored my feelings about the book.

El Premi Llibreter 2004 no deja indiferente a quien lo lea. Destacaría fundamentalmente la mezcla bien trabada de géneros, temas y estilos (en especial el monólogo, las cartas y las referencias etnológicas, marítimas y metaliterarias). La novela describe sin ambages y con una prosa muy elegante la omnipresencia de la mentira y la leyenda en nuestras vidas. Una verdadera joyita.

Very interesting arena for discussions on funeral rites, death in various cultures, ethics of lies, truth.

Good storytelling of a modern-day Spanish family and the lies that have been a part of their family in the past and the present.

fantastico libro sobre la libertad de escapar de una vida que oprime, encorseta y a la que se vuelve desde una posición nueva.