The Liar's Dictionary
By Eley Williams

A WINNER OF THE 2021 BETTY TRASK AWARDSSHORTLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE 2021__________________________'Joyous'and SPECTATOR'Remarkable'and SUNDAY TIMES'A playful delight... A glorious novel'and OBSERVERSwansby's New Encyclopaedic Dictionaryand is riddled with fictitious entries known asand mountweazelsand penned by Peter Winceworth, a man wishing to make his lasting mark back in 1899. It's up to young intern Mallory to uncover these mountweazels before the dictionary can be digitised for modern readers.Lost in Winceworth's imagination - a world full of meaningless words - will Mallory finally discover the secret to living a meaningful life?__________________________'Made me almost tearful with gratitude that a book as clever as this could give such uncomplicated pleasureand ...and And when you find a book like this, you grab it, and you hold it close.' JOHN SELF'A delightand ...and As funny and vivid as Dickens, as moving and memorable as Nabokov ... An extraordinarily large-hearted work.'and THE CRITIC'Deft and clever, refreshing and rewardingand ...and An assured and satisfying writer, her language rich and intricate and her characters rounded enough to be sympathetic and lampoonist enough to be terribly funny.'and LITERARY REVIEW'[The] most exciting of young British writers ... Williams luxuriates in words and wordplay, in definition and precision and invention ...The Liar's Dictionaryand is a public joy, and Eley Williams a free-spirited literary kook with bags of potential.'and BIG ISSUE'A singular, hilarious, word-drunk novel, which I suspect will be seen in the future as a classicand comic novel.'and DAVID HAYDEN,and IRISH TIMES'The Liar's Dictionaryand is the book I was longing for ... Positively intoxicated with the joy and wonder of language ... Eley Williams brings erudition and playfulness - and lovely sweetness - to every page.'and BENJAMIN DREYER,and New York Timesand bestselling author ofand DREYER'S ENGLISH'This tale of lexical intrigues is an absolute joy to read! It's gloriously inventive and playful,and but with just the right amount of heart.'and LUCY SCHOLES