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One of the chapters of Second World War history that many seem anxious to skip over briskly is the German occupation of the island of Guernsey during the Second World War. Surprisingly few novels have been written about the episode; Tim Binding's ISLAND MADNESS is a notable exception and the relatively recent GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY by West Virginia native Mary Ann Schaffer was more charming invention than historically sound account. Strikingly, the more notable books set on Guernsey during the war have been written by authors whom the inhabitants of another island, Newfoundland, would say were "from away." The reason for this reticence is fairly clear. Whatever happened on Guernsey in the more than four years of German occupation, it involved the widespread humiliation of the resident population, which felt abandoned by Britain, as well as notable acts of courageous individual resistance and a substantial degree of collaboration with the occupiers. Additionally, as the children of the island were sent to safety in Britain, the episode produced an almost irreparable breach in traditional Guernsey culture. Though Mary Horlock no longer lives there, she did grow up on Guernsey and her account here of a painful adolescence in that very small community has the ring of lived experience. THE BOOK OF LIES concentrates on two young people, both in their mid-teens and both of whom announce at the outset that they are guilty of a homicide. One is Charles André Rozier, twelve years old in 1940 and recording what happened as he grew up under the occupation. The other is his niece, Cat Rozier, whose father Émile, recently deceased, was "the expert on this Guernsey's Guilty Past," a role that did not endear him to his neighbours. He also wished to rehabilitate the memory of his brother, in his view unjustly condemned as a collaborator. Cat has inherited the family guilt and thus she confesses to killing her schoolmate Nicolette, the bully: "I'm a murderer and it's not just my fault. I can blame the Germans, and I can blame my parents, and I can blame my parents' parents. Don't you see? Once you know your History, it does explain everything. It turns out I was a murderer before I was even born." The book takes the form of alternate narratives in the voices of the two teenagers. Charlie's voice, recorded twenty years after the events that destroyed his life, is clotted with grief and guilt. He speaks predominantly in English, larded with Guernais, the patois that was once universal on the island but which declined following the occupation. Cat, on the other hand, is a thoroughly modern teenager c. 1985, or at least as modern as she can manage within the confines of Guernsey. Neither of them is an especially reliable narrator, in part because neither of them is in possession of the truth about their family's history. Thus, although both confess to murder in the opening pages of the book, the reader cannot be certain that murders occurred or that either is guilty. Cat is certainly guilty of quite a lot, however, but she seems oblivious to the wreckage she leaves behind her. She is an utterly infuriating adolescent, bright, dramatic, alternately arrogantly certain of her superior judgement and completely destroyed by the rejection of her peers. You won't like her very much, but you will care about her. THE BOOK OF LIES marks a striking debut for Mary Horlock. Perhaps not precisely a crime novel, it nevertheless grounded in a great historical crime and deeply serious in its exploration of the far-reaching consequences of the betrayals and treacheries of the past. The ending is particularly brilliant, both in what it reveals and what it withholds. § Yvonne Klein is a writer, translator, and retired college English professor who lives in Montreal.
Reviewed by Yvonne Klein, July 2011
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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