Seven Lies
- Published: 1 July 2010
- ISBN: 9781407093529
- Imprint: Vintage Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 208
[T]his seems to be an artful evocation of the effect of totalitarianism on the individual. But if this sounds drably psychological, I am doing the novel a disservice: it is short, intense, powerful and superbly crafted
Chris Power, The Times
Seven Lies...has a way of enlarging the spirit and refreshing the mind far more comprehensively than many books with twice its 200 pages
James Buchan, Guardian
A brilliant and darkly funny tale of politics and paranoia
Christina Patterson, Independent
A riveting, thrillerish plot. Here is a stylist who's also a fabulous storyteller... A treat
Daily Telegraph
An elegant, moving and intelligent book
Irish Times
Gripping and beautifully written
Scotsman
Grips the reader from the start... Lean, artful, assured
Spectator
Intricately plotted and structured, its prose both elegant and poised, Seven Lies could be read as a fable about the political and spiritual corruption endemic in a totalitarian state. It is, however, very much concerned with the human cost of deception and betrayal
Tim Parks, Sunday Times
James Lasdun is a tremendous writer and Seven Lies is that rare thing, a novel that delivers on every level. It is so gripping that you want to gobble it down at a single sitting, and yet the prose is so exacting that you want to linger over every sentence
Geoff Dyer
Lasdun's second novel has much of the thriller about it. But its more sinuous power comes from other duplicities in Stefan's previous life: a glorious section of the book involves his teenage self plagiarising Walt Whitman to impress his mother's salon, all the while bribing a pederast janitor with aquavit to gain access to the source material
Alex Clark, Observer
The descriptive brilliance leaves a lasting impression
Jonathan Derbyshire, Financial Times
The imaginativeness with which he explores the politics of expectation and failure runs deep...Seven Lies combines the knuckle-whitening tension of a thriller with literary wit and the precision of a surgeon seeking to tease out rotten flesh. Definitely a novel to be admired
Economist