Winner of the Costa Book of the Year 2015.
The Lie Tree is a wonderfully evocative and atmospheric novel by Frances
Hardinge, award-winning author of Cuckoo Song and Fly By Night.
Faith’s father has been found dead under mysterious circumstances, and as she
is searching through his belongings for clues she discovers a strange tree. The
tree only grows healthy and bears fruit if you whisper a lie to it. The fruit
of the tree, when eaten, will deliver a hidden truth to the person who consumes
it. The bigger the lie, the more people who believe it, the bigger the truth
that is uncovered.
The girl realizes that she is good at lying and that the tree might hold the
key to her father’s murder, so she begins to spread untruths far and wide
across her small island community. But as her tales spiral out of control, she
discovers that where lies seduce, truths shatter . . .”