What I Saw and How I Lied

LoveReading Says

Winner of the prestigious National Book Award.

Julia Eccleshare's comment:

Utterly gripping and beautifully told, this is a stunning rite of passage novel full of powerful and conflicting emotions, which captures Evie’s dramatic shift from child to adult in pinpoint sharp, painful detail. Excited at the thought of the new opportunities that the family will benefit from when her stepfather returns from the war, Evie’s life is turned upside down when the family suddenly take off for Palm Springs. Here Evie meets a young ex-GI who served with her stepfather with whom she falls head over heals in love. But her simple romance is played out against a backdrop of dangerous adult secrets, racism and intrigues. When tragedy strikes, Evie has to reconsider all the adults in her life and her story will determine their future.

Lovereading comment:

I was lucky enough to meet the author at a dinner to celebrate publication of this sophisticated and atmospheric coming-of-age novel.  Stylish with all the hallmarks of classic film-noir it's the story of the tumultuous awakening of adolescene uniquely framed by the complex situation of America at the end of the Second World War.  A soldier with a hidden past, greed, the threat of blackmail, jealousy, a mysterious death, moral ambiguity and a femme fatale with sexual motivation, Blundell powerfully places an innocent teenage girl as the investigator who must discover what has happened and make moral judgements.  The author amplifies the darkness and anxiety of the post-war mood whilst the storyline addresses the complexities of a society that challenged anti-semitism at the end of a war, only to find it still rife at home.  Reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird, What I saw and How I Lied is set to become a future classic.

Julia Eccleshare M.B.E.

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