8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster: The heartbreaking and compelling 2023 debut novel about love, war, motherhood and survival

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‘Heartbreaking’ Monica Ali’Intoxicating’ Marjan Kamali, author of The Stationery Shop of Tehran’Dazzling’ Catherine Cho, author of Inferno’I have never put so much trust in a verified liar’ Alyssa Songsiridej, author of Little RabbitSLAVE. ESCAPE-ARTIST. MURDERER. TERRORIST. SPY. LOVER. MOTHER. TRICKSTER.At the Golden Sunset retirement home, it is not unusual for residents to invent stories. So when elderly Ms Mook first begins to unspool her memories, the obituarist listening to her is sceptical. Stories of captivity, friendship, murder, adventure, assumed identities and spying. Stories that take place in WWII Indonesia; in Busan during the Korean war; in cold-war Pyongyang; in China. The stories are so colourful and various, at times so unbelievable, that they cannot surely all belong to the same woman. Can they? As playful and thought-provoking as it is compelling, as brutal and harrowing as it is achingly poignant and tender, this is a novel about love and war, deceit and betrayal, about identity, storytelling and the trickery required for survival.

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