Product Description

Fresh from finishing university in England, Adam Woods arrives in Venice to begin a new chapter in his life. He soon secures employment as the personal assistant of Gordon Crace -- a famous expatriate novelist who makes his home in a dank and crumbling palazzo, surrounded by fabulous works of art, piles of unanswered correspondence and the memories of his former literary glory.

Before long Adam becomes indispensable to the feeble Crace, and he finds himself at once drawn to and repelled by his elderly employer's brilliant mind and eccentric habits. As Adam comes to learn more about the scandal that brought Crace to Venice years ago, he realizes he has stumbled upon the raw material that could launch his own literary career and makes a bold decision: He will secretly write the famous author's biography. But outsmarting Crace is easier said than done, and the two soon find themselves locked in a bitter contest over the right to determine how the story of Crace's life will end. Against the haunting backdrop of the serene city, the two men engage in a ruthless game of cat and mouse that builds to a breathtaking and unexpected conclusion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #938350 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780743293976
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:
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Amazon.com Review
Andrew Wilson has follwed Beautiful Shadow, his stunning biography about Patricia Highsmith, with his debut novel, The Lying Tongue, a book that follows in Highsmith's own tradition of plot twists and psychological conundrums.

Adam Woods arrives in Venice from England to take a job and work on his novel. The job quickly evaporates, so he finds another, as amanuensis to a reclusive old author, Gordon Crace. Things start out in a straightforward manner. The author is eccentric, to say the least, but after tidying up the place and perusing the fine art collection, Adam settles in. Crace has written one book, refuses to talk about it and tells Adam that he doesn't want his authorial life even mentioned. It is over.

The only thing we know about Adam is that he just graduated from college and his love affair ended badly. We subsequently find out that when his girlfriend broke up with him he raped her to show her how much she really wanted to be with him. Enter Adam, the sinister creep. That is just the beginning of what we find out about him, about Gordon and what they are both capable of in this revelatory tale of two truly despicable people. After finding two interesting--and damning--letters among Gordon's castabout papers, Adam decides to abandon his novel and write Crace's biography.

Wilson keeps us guessing as Adam leaves Gordon for a week, pleading a need to attend his grandmother's funeral. He goes back to England to head off another biographer, to snoop around to see what she has gleaned, and to do a bit of research on his own. Things do not go exactly as planned, but Adam is more than equal to whatever heinous act it takes to advance his own cause. When he returns to Venice and Gordon, the creep factor increases dramatically and ends in a crafty and perfect conclusion, one that the reader is not prepared for... which makes it that much better. --Valerie Ryan

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Patricia Highsmith, the subject of British journalist Wilson's acclaimed biography Beautiful Shadow, would be delighted by this standout debut novel, which heralds a major new talent in the psychological thriller genre. After a tutoring job in Venice falls through, aspiring novelist Adam Woods appears to luck into the perfect position there—as personal assistant to the reclusive Gordon Crace, an acclaimed writer whose life is shrouded in mystery and who's published only one novel. Crace, who's locked himself away from the glories of his chosen city, insists Woods abide by a set of strict rules, including not mentioning Crace's literary success. In clearing out the author's mess of a study, Woods finds two letters that hint at a dark secret in Crace's past, and begins to discreetly probe his employer's past, with calamitous results. Wilson brilliantly and subtly introduces doubt in the reader as to Woods's reliability and character before delivering some potent final plot twists. Fans of classic Hitchcock will be richly rewarded. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post
"Wherever I went I saw a question mark at the heart of the city." This evocative opening line, which begins Andrew Wilson's The Lying Tongue, provides a telling metaphor for an extraordinary work of imaginative genius, meshing Dickens's gothic atmosphere with Hitchcock's suspenseful creepiness.

The novel opens in Venice with a travelogue of shimmering historical description dappled with poetic detail. The narrator, Adam Woods, a recently graduated and troubled student, tells us he has taken leave of England to start anew after an unseemly end to a relationship with his girlfriend. He has a job offer to tutor a 16-year-old boy and aspirations to write a novel.

The tutoring job falls through before Woods even starts his new life. But good fortune strikes, and he is informed that a reclusive English author living in Venice, Gordon Crace, is in need of a personal assistant. Woods applies for and secures the job, describing his employer's liver-spotted hand during their initial handshake as feeling like the "lifeless body of a tiny bird."

What unfolds, in three discreet parts, is Woods's initial fascination with the aged Crace, whose first and only novel, published in the 1960s, was an international bestseller. Crace is loath to mention his life as a writer and warns Woods against transgressing onto the subject, though he knows Woods aspires to be a writer. Their relationship is tenuous, claustrophobic and downright unnerving, underscored by a sublimated sexual tension as Crace, in his infirmity, comes to depend entirely on Woods as a surrogate companion.

The gothic noir of the isolated relationship, set against the silent movement of gondolas and fog, is eerie. Failing in his attempt to write his own novel, Woods begins secretly writing a biography of Crace. As he sifts through Crace's personal correspondence, we are led through the enthralling process of how a biographer goes about resurrecting a buried life with the power to shape and define a subject's reputation and immortality. Early on, Woods hits pay dirt: a blackmail letter seemingly alluding to the death of Crace's one-time lover.

The intensity heightens as Woods's disgust for Crace deepens, and he becomes determined to unearth his subject's past. Under the pretext of leaving to attend a funeral, Woods departs for England. Equally at home in exploring the rain-sodden British Isles, Wilson demonstrates his true scope as a writer. The novel takes on a breathtaking pace as Woods uncovers disturbing details related to Crace's tenure at a boys' school. Armed with sufficient evidence to force Crace into helping him publish the biography, Woods returns to Venice and a surreally violent denouement.

With an intriguing climactic twist that borrows from the esoteric coded messaging made famous in The Da Vinci Code, Wilson pulls off a mesmerizing tale that seeks to answer the question "Who are we really?"

-- Michael Collins is the author of six novels, including, most recently, "Death of a Writer."

Copyright 2007, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Customer Reviews

Brilliant. Ms. Highsmith would be proud.
I only read about this novel last Friday. The cover photograph caught my eye. Then I read what the book was about and that the author is the acclaimed biographer of Patricia Highsmith - a favorite. I knew I had to read it. I rushed out and found a copy and devoured it over the weekend.

Recently graduated from University, would be novelist Adam Woods can't believe his good fortune in landing a position as personal assistant to the reclusive writer Gordon Crace. Crace is an enigmatic figure. Forty years ago he published a phenomenally popular novel of murder at a boys school called "The Debating Society" before retreating into seclusion. An intensely private man, Crace wants nothing more than to be left alone with only the skeletons in his closet for company. However, one rarely gets what one wants - or deserves. Sensing an opportunity to exploit Crace and the mystery of his self-imposed isolation, Woods sets out to discover all he can about the man's past. As you can well imagine, what he finds isn't pretty.

Andrew Wilson has done Ms. Highsmith proud. His is truly a novel of suspence, equal parts "The Aspern Papers" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley." I could only put it down reluctantly. Rarely have I found a work of fiction as compelling. His writing is graceful and fluid. There isn't a word or phrase out of place. Each idea, character and situation is presented clearly and succinctly. My only regret is that I read it too fast.

The Talented Mr. Wilson
Here's a first novel that really jumps out of the pack. Andrew Wilson, author of BEAUTIFUL SHADOW, the acclaimed biography of Patricia Highsmith, has now written a work of fiction that does much more than simply compare favorably to his idol. THE LYING TONGUE is a tale of insidious evil and murder that stands on its own merits. Wilson has a gift for straightforward, matter-of-fact suspense, and this story of an ambitious young writer and the legendary novelist he seeks to exploit builds in quiet intensity to a chilling finale. I don't know what Wilson plans to write next, but I'll definitely be reading it. Bravo!

"Free of responsibility and able to disregard the rules."
Andrew Wilson's "The Lying Tongue" is narrated by Adam Woods, a young man who leaves London for Venice after completing his art history degree. Adam is at loose ends after breaking up with his girlfriend and his plans for the future are vague. He soon becomes the housekeeper and companion of reclusive and wealthy Gordon Crace, an author who produced one bestselling novel and never wrote another. The elderly and eccentric Crace lives an isolated life in his gloomy and unkempt palazzo. When he moves in with Crace, Adam announces that he wants to write a novel in his spare time. However, Adam is constantly busy tending to his cranky employer's insatiable needs, and life in Venice soon proves to be more lonely and claustrophobic than pleasurable. Crace never leaves his house and he becomes anxious when Adam abandons him to shop or even take a walk.

Wilson's detailed descriptions of the sights and sounds of Venice bring this unique city to life. With Adam, we take water taxis on its canals, eat in its restaurants, and stroll on its busy streets. Through his eyes, we see the paintings, altarpieces, and sculptures that attract connoisseurs of religious art. However, we also learn early on in the narrative, through the author's somewhat heavy-handed use of symbolism and foreshadowing, that amidst all of this beauty there is decadence and decay.

"The Lying Tongue" is a psychological thriller in which vital information is withheld that, when revealed, completely alters our understanding of the characters and events in the story. After Adam learns some sinister secrets about Crace's past, the two men become entangled in a game of cat and mouse that threatens to turn deadly. One of the book's key questions is: To whom do we owe our loyalty? Should we look out for own interests at the expense of others, or should we adhere to a personal code of honor, even if it means sacrificing what we want? When Adam hatches a scheme that he believes will make his fortune, he is tempted to step over boundaries that he had narrowly avoided crossing in the past, and the reader is held in unbearable suspense wondering how it will all end. Although the conclusion is not particularly surprising, it is a fitting finale to this dark and clever tale of sadism, selfishness, treachery, and madness.