The liar's dictionary, Eley Williams, 2020
The Liar's Dictionary is Eley Williams’ first novel, and was longlisted for the UK Desmond Elliott Prize 2021, which supports early-career novelists to develop their writing career. A charming novel of gentle humour, we follow two lexicographers 100 years apart: Mallory, who narrates in present day, and Peter Winceworth from 1899. Both work for Swansby’s New Encyclopaedic Dictionary, an eccentric labour of love maintained by generations of the Swansby family.
One thing I love about this novel, is that I learnt the new word “mountweazel” which is the term used for the made-up words inserted into dictionaries to protect their intellectual property. I will now be inserting that term into every conversation with my family until they beg me to stop. Eley Williams is apparently an expert in mountweazels as she wrote her doctoral thesis on them, and I love that she has used this knowledge to such playful delight in this book: even the chapters are named in alphabetical order of the mountweazels.
This is a glorious novel about words. Toggling between the personal stories of Mallory and Winceworth, you'll also uncover a mystery, a love story, and a comedy in one very compact story. An intern for the eccentric David Swansby, Mallory is tasked with investigating the errors he has found in the dictionary – the mountweazels. There is another disturbing factor working for the dictionary, as someone is calling daily to issue bomb threats on account of the dictionary changing its 1899 definition of marriage from “union between man and woman” to "between … persons”. Mallory is also navigating her personal same sex relationship and her ambivalence in ‘coming out’.
Toggling between the personal stories of Mallory and Winceworth, you'll also uncover a mystery, a love story, and a comedy in one very compact story.
- Jane Cowell
Winceworth is an awkward young man with a fake lisp who is forced to maintain this charade by attending elocution lessons ordered by his boss – another Swansby eccentric, and this charade is increasingly uncomfortable as he is working on the letter S for the dictionary. He laments the fact that there is no word to describe his hangover headache, and his sharp awkwardness and cutting observations of his other lexicographers really made the novel for me.
Appealing to the intellect, this clever novel does, through words, connect us to the characters' emotions and lives and makes us hope they have more in their lives. Totally recommend this as a great read if you, like me, love words.