The Liar and the City
The narrative follows Nuphar, an ordinary girl who works in an ice-cream parlor during the summer. Dozens of customers come in every day, but no one gives Nuphar a second look – she is not one of those girls that the eye lingers on. But everything changes when Avishai Milner comes into the ice-cream parlor. An embittered reality-show runaway, he insults and humiliates her. Deeply offended, Nuphar rushes out to the backyard, and Avishai—who is still waiting for his change—chases after her. “Leave me alone!” she cries with all her 17 mediocre years’ worth of hurt and frustration. Her screams alert the townsfolk, and to her surprise everyone is convinced that Avishai tried to sexually assault her. Now, for the first time in her life, Nuphar finds herself the center of attention. The support that she receives from the community turns her into a kind of Cinderella and the ice-cream salesgirl becomes a Media Princess. But the magic of this Cinderella story comes from her lies about an attack that did not actually happen.
- Languages
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Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Slovak, Spanish
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English
London, Pushkin, 2019;
New York, Little, Brown, 2019;
London, Pushkin, 2020 -
German
Zurich, Kein & Aber, 2017, pocket, 2018 -
Italian
Florence, Giuntina, 2019 -
Dutch
Amsterdam, Atlas, Cossee, 2020 -
French
Paris, Presses de la Cité, 2019 -
Korean
Seoul, Open Books, forthcoming -
Russian
Moscow, Sindbad, 2020 -
Slovak
Bratislava, Artforum, 2019 -
Greek
Athens, Kastaniotis, forthcoming -
Portuguese
Sao Paolo, Todavia, forthcoming -
Spanish
Barcelona, Navona, forthcoming
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| Title | The Liar and the City |
|---|---|
| Writer's Last Name | Gundar-Goshen |
| Writer's First Name | Ayelet |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Publisher (Hebrew) | Achuzat Bayit |
| No. Pages | 278pp. |
| Book title - Hebrew (phonetic) | Ha-Shakranit Ve-Ha-Ir |
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“It's a pleasure to read how Ayelet Gundar-Goshen exposes her protagonists with psychological mercilessness.”
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“Ayelet Gundar-Goshen has a trained, keen sense of observation. Her narrative is characterized by a deep knowledge of human vulnerability.”
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“The truth becomes some people, and others are made beautiful by falsity,” writes the Israeli author in this novel in which 17-year-old Nofar, an ice-cream parlour attendant, finds herself falsely accusing a talent-show star of sexual assault. Gundar-Goshen problematises the relationship between victim and perpetrator in the era of #MeToo and fake news.”