Liars - by Sarah Manguso (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"A bracing story of a woman on the verge."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A nuclear family can destroy a woman artist. I'd always known that. But I'd never suspected how easily I'd fall into one anyway.

When Jane, an aspiring writer, meets filmmaker John Bridges, they both want the same things: to be in love, to live a successful, creative life, and to be happy. When they marry, Jane believes she has found everything she was looking for, including--a few years later--all the attendant joys and labors of motherhood. But it's not long until Jane finds herself subsumed by John's ambitions, whims, and ego; in short, she becomes a wife.

As Jane's career flourishes, their marriage starts to falter. Throughout the upheavals of family life, Jane tries to hold it all together. That is, until John leaves her.

Liars is a tour de force of wit and rage, telling the blistering story of a marriage as it burns to the ground, and of a woman rising inexorably from its ashes.

Review Quotes

"A tour de force . . . Liars makes an old story fresh."--NPR

"Makes stirring observations about marriage and identity."--Time

"Is divorce the new marriage plot? . . . [Liars] pulses with a rare kind of anger, making it a compulsive, unforgettable read. Love stories, it seems, are out. Divorce as liberation? Very much in."--Vogue

"[Manguso] is at the top of her game."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"A bracing story of a woman on the verge."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Painful and beautifully wrought. . . Manguso is a poet-novelist who knows brevity can whittle the sharpest knife."--Vulture

"Gorgeously written, eminently readable . . . Manguso's latest is a story wholly and brilliantly told."--Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Liars seethes with rage. Manguso is a masterful sentence writer and a brutally honest surveyor of the disadvantages women endure."--Los Angeles Times

"Devastating and clarifying . . . Liars will leave a puncture wound."--The Rumpus

"The kind of writer capable of walloping you with an insight when you least expect it."--Romper

"Painful and brilliant--I loved it."--Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot and Either/Or

"An unflinchingly true and honest depiction of a marriage turning from gold to dust."--Miranda Cowley Heller, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Paper Palace

"I couldn't put it down. It sliced all the way through me. So many women will connect with this book."--Rachel Yoder, author of Nightbitch

"A triumph and a revelation . . . This might be the most honest marriage novel I have ever read. I loved this book."--Claire Dederer, author of Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma

"A white-hot dissection of the power imbalances in a marriage, and as gripping as you want fiction to be. Any spouse that has ever argued about money, time, work and childcare should read it."--Nick Hornby, author of High Fidelity and Just Like You

"I read Liars in one breathless, refuse-to-be-interrupted sitting. I was walloped on every page."--Maggie Smith, author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful

"Shocking and captivating."--Julia Phillips, author of Bear and Disappearing Earth

"A brilliantly paced, gripping novel of love and betrayal."--Lyz Lenz, author of This American Ex-Wife

"An exquisitely creepy book about one of our most horrifying institutions: marriage. I quickly devoured it and loved it."--Myriam Gurba, author of Creep

About the Author