The Liar’s Dictionary

NATIONAL BESTSELLER“The Liar’s Dictionary is the book I was longing for. So eudaemonical, so felicific and habile! A harlequinade of cachinnation! It's hilarious and smart and charming and I loved it. Read it. It’s the book you’re longing for.” —Andrew Sean Greer, 2018 Pulitzer Prize winner for Less“Infused with the essence of Wodehouse and Wilde, The Liar’s Dictionary is by turns madly eccentric, gracefully poignant, and laugh-out-loud funny. Eley Williams confirms her abilities as virtuoso wordsmith, offering an homage to the oddball-ishness of English (both the language and the nationality), as well as cautionary tales regarding, among other topics, the wrestling of pelicans and the ribald nature of certain museum statuary.” —CS Richardson, author of The End of the Alphabet"An improbably enchanting, rollicking novel about two generations of put-upon London lexicographers,The Liar's Dictionary is positively intoxicated with the joy and wonder of language, both authentic and, often hilariously, counterfeit, and I can assure you that it's quite the contact high. Eley Williams brings erudition and playfulness—and lovely sweetness—to every page." —Benjamin Dreyer, New York Times bestselling author of Dreyer's English “[W]onderful. . . . This book takes the most unpromising of heroes—two lexicographers—and then sets them loose in an effervescent romp about language, love and life. If you like puns, crosswords, Scrabble, the Urban Dictionary or simply enjoy witty writing, this sweet, slyly structured, unexpectedly touching book will go down like a hot fudge sundae. . . . Every page is intoxicated with words. . . . It is never less than a delight and a wise one at that.” —John Powers, NPR"A virtuoso performance full of charm…It's simultaneously a love story, an office comedy, a sleuth mystery and a slice of gaslit late Victoriana…The Liar's Dictionary is a glorious novel—a perfectly crafted investigation of our ability to define words and their power to define us." —The Guardian“Perfectly calibrated…For a novel as finely tuned as this, to leave one with a sense of the intoxicating hopefulness of chance is its greatest achievement in a competitive field.” —Los Angeles Review of Books “[A] pitch-perfect lexical romp filled with flawed-but-adorable characters and delightfully inventive words. . . . [B]e prepared to be dazzled.” —South China Morning Post"A remarkable novel…Original and often very funny, The Liar’s Dictionary is an offbeat exploration of both the delights of language and its limitations." —Sunday Times (UK)"Comically inventine…The author combines a Nabokovian love of wordplay with an Ali Smith–like ability to create eccentric characters who will take up permanent residence in the reader’s heart. This is a sheer delight for word lovers." —Publisher's Weekly (starred review)