The Lie

by Helen Dunmore

Hardcover, 2014

Status

Available

Call number

823.92

Genres

Publication

Atlantic Monthly Press (2014), 304 pages

Description

"Cornwall, 1920. Daniel Branwell has survived the First World War and returned to the small fishing town where he was born. Behind him are the trenches and the most intense relationship of his life. As he works on the land, struggling to make a living in the aftermath of war, he is drawn deeper and deeper into the traumas of the past and memories of his dearest friend and his first love. As the drama unfolds, Daniel is haunted by the terrible, unforeseen consequences of a lie. Set in France during the First World War and in postwar Cornwall, this is a deeply moving and mesmerizing story of the 'men who marched away'" --

Media reviews

Graeme Aitken

User reviews

LibraryThing member cbl_tn

Everything has changed when Daniel Branwell returns to Cornwall after fighting in the trenches of France in World War I. Daniel's mother has died, and with no other family and no home, he lives in a makeshift shelter near the home of an elderly, reclusive woman. Daniel suffers from PTSD, and he's

haunted by memories of the war and by the ghost of his childhood friend, Frederick, who did not survive the war. Although he avoids most people, Daniel reestablishes a relationship with Frederick's sister, Felicia, a war widow at just 20 years old. Preferring his established routines to uncertainty, Daniel lies to Felicia about his present circumstances. Only later does he realize that he's committed himself to maintaining a certain appearance which will become increasingly difficult.

Daniel's fragile mental state makes him a somewhat unreliable narrator. Is Daniel's PTSD episodic or unremitting? Just what was Daniel's lie? Was it what he tells readers it was? Or is his entire story a lie? Can readers trust anything he tells us? This book will stimulate discussion about war and its management, its psychological effects on veterans, social class and military life and experience, and society's responsibilities for veterans.

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LibraryThing member janerawoof

More of a 3.5. The languid pace of the novel may not suit everyone, but it fit my mood. A young man, Daniel, returns to his native Cornwall after serving in World War I, unscathed physically, but shell-shocked and broken in mind. There are three main strands of the narrative: Dan, growing up with

Frederick and Felicia, siblings in a higher-class family, where Dan works as a gardener; World War I; and Dan's postwar [1920] life back home. Scenes in the present alternate with flashback memories, triggered by the smallest incident or remark. Frederick's The muddy figure of Frederick, who died in the war, often appears at the foot of his bed at night. The novel explores the nature of guilt; Dan still holds himself responsible for Frederick's death on that last mission. A lie is covered up and as time passes, influences the story. Present-day 'action' is little enough: connecting again with Felicia, repairing her furnace, and a picnic with her, then the devastating conclusion.

The postwar story was weak, but the war scenes were evocative and gripping. I had to get used to the author switching from one time period to the other, often in the middle of a paragraph. A psychological study of Dan and his instability, the novel to me was a cautionary tale: if one tells a big enough lie, eventually there will be retribution. Emotion was conveyed vividly, as were descriptions of the landscape and people. The writing was exquisite. I liked how the quotations from different poems were worked into the text, each having something to do with whatever chapter they appeared, as were the epigraphs from the British Stationery Office of that period on the war. I caught what I believe to be a whiff of homoeroticism.

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LibraryThing member thornton37814

Daniel Branwell has returned to Cornwall after fighting in World War I. He lives with an old woman who dies. Instead of reporting the death, he buries her and pretends she is living so he can continue to live in her house. Like many, he suffered the loss of a close friend in the war. That friend

was Frederick, and Daniel reconnects with his friend's sister Felicia after the war. He's also suffering from what we know today as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (or PTSD). We discover lies Daniel has told which make the reader question which parts of the narrative are true and which are not. Dunmore knows how to write a story that will keep readers' attention even if they dislike many or most of the characters. My reading brought to mind a conversation I recently had with a friend who had done her nursing practicum for psychiatric nursing at a Veterans Administration facility. She said it was a great place for that specialty because the soldiers suffering PTSD really did need to be there. It made me wonder how Daniel's life and end might have been different if the disorder and been recognized at the time and if facilities for treatment had existed.

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LibraryThing member mancmilhist

Helen Dunmore uses great lyrical prose to describe the return from the Great War Of Daniel to a small Cornish coastal village.

Still haunted by the loss of his best friend in battle, Daniel is troubled by shell shock and the guilt of his survival.

Daniel's story is told in the first person and this

gives great insight into his mind and his attempts to keep his sanity.

This book is a haunting read and highly recommended amongst the plethora of WW1 books coming out at the moment.

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LibraryThing member cabockwrites

Soldier home to small town in England after World War I, suffering from what we'd know now as PSTD. Tragic and moving.

LibraryThing member infjsarah

Although I have by no means read a lot of Helen Dunmore, what I have read is excellent. Her The Siege is incredible. This book does not reach the same heights but is still very enjoyable. She is a poetic writer but at the same time easy to read. My book group in general enjoyed it a lot.

LibraryThing member BrokenTune

DNF @ 23%

I'm just not feeling this one. The story seems pretty flat and although the topic of the devastating effects of the WW1 experience is described well, neither the story nor the characters or the storytelling is engaging me enough to want to spend more time with this book.

LibraryThing member john257hopper

This novel concerns the life of a young Cornish man, Daniel Branwell, in 1920, after returning from the trenches of the Western Front. He is racked by guilt over the death there of his childhood friend Frederick, the son of the local wealthy engineer, who employed Daniel's mother as his cleaner

before the war and until her early death. Daniel is rootless and is invited to live in a makeshift shelter on the land of a solitary old lady, Mary Pascoe. He looks after her as she grows ill and then, at her dying request, he takes over her cottage and buries her on the land she loved. He continues to be haunted by the ghost of Frederick, and the associated smell of the mud and death of the trenches, even as he tries to renew his acquaintance with Frederick's sister Felicia, who now has a young daughter, her husband having also not returned from the war. This novel is very well written, but is not for those looking for a fast paced narrative. The eponymous "lie" seems to refer both to Daniel's guilt over the death of Frederick, whom he thinks he abandoned, and to his deceit over the whereabouts of Mary after he took over her cottage. The ending is suitably ambiguous, though I found it a little abrupt.

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