White Lie (original 2012; edition 2013)

by Andrea Gillies (Author)

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
122	7	237,072	(3.5)	7
"'One hot summer day, Michael Salter, nineteen-year-old scion of a posh Highland family, disappears. When his childlike aunt claims she drowned him during a fight, the family closes ranks. No police. No memorial service. No titbits for village gossips. A decade of deceit begins." -- Financial Times The Salter family orbits around Peattie House, their crumbling Scottish estate filled with threadbare furniture, patrician memories, and all the secrets that go with them. While they are gathered for their grandmother's seventieth birthday, someone breaks the silence. The web begins to unravel. But what is the white lie? How many others are built upon it? How many lives have been changed because of it? Only one person knows the whole truth. From beyond the grave, Michael loops back into the past until we see, beyond perception and memory, how deeply our decisions resound, and just what is the place, and price, of grandeur. Andrea Gillies brings us inside a big house and a great family, with an elegantly written novel of eccentric characters, twists and turns and redirects, and shocking revelations'"--… (more)

▾Book information

Member:	Carrieramon
Title:	White Lie
Authors:	Andrea Gillies (Author)
Info:	Mariner Books (2013), 448 pages
Collections:	Your library, Currently reading
Rating:
Tags:	None

Work Information

The White Lie by Andrea Gillies (2012)

all members

▾Members

Recently added by

KnoxFox, candicelb84, debsbooktherapy, Beefalopes, georgebexley, CDVicarage, nordie, Catlvr18, megmay82, Taylor29

▾Tags

▾LibraryThing Recommendations

▾Lists

None

▾Will you like it?

▾Conversations (About links)

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 7 mentions

▾Member reviews

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 7 (next | show all)

The White Lie is a story of a family's inability to be truthful with itself. It is about repressed emotion, appearances, conventionality and that most British of things, embarassment. Michael, the narrator, admits to being dead from the start, and he tells his tale slowly, hesitantly, picking through the motives and emotions of his family for clues. Although there is a mystery - the shadows and secrets around the real events of Michael's death - this is not a whodunnit in the conventional sense. It is possible to work out at least some of the truth of it quite early on; that isn't what keeps the reader engaged. Rather, it is the manner of the telling, the rich detail of observation, and the oppressive atmosphere of the family in its ancestral place that make this an enthralling read. If you love a good murder mystery, it could be a disappointment: this is a book that reveals the hidden, pale underside of human motives, and it does that superbly well. (

)

Goldengrove | Oct 25, 2014 |

This mystery presents itself in an interesting way- the story is told from the perspective of the murder victim, and no one seems at all unclear on the identity of the killer. As such, the book really focuses more on the how and why than the the who, and reflects an interesting perspective of the murder victim aging and maturing as he haunts his home- he has a deeper understanding of and sympathy for its series of overlapping secrets.

That said, there are periods when the narrative starts to drag making reading a challenge. Also, the central mystery and revelations are nothing of the sort for an astute reader. I am not actually certain if they are supposed to be a surprise but it seems likely, and yet the suspense simply wasn't here. Regardless, the books is well-written and the story enjoyable. I felt engaged with the characters, especially poor Michael, even if I never really understood why his entire family was willing to allow his aunt's involvement in his murder to go uninvestigated. (

)

ForeignCircus | Jan 21, 2014 |

Did he die or just run away (and then die)? He's not saying. (

)

picardyrose | Jan 12, 2014 |

I felt suffocated by the web of lies and deception that this book recounted. It all seemed so pointless and destructive. This family encapsulated the worst of neurotic, inward-looking, landed gentry. (

)

Rosie-Anne | Oct 28, 2013 |

A boy dies in the lake on a rambling Scottish estate. Some years later, so does his nephew. The White Lie explores the family mythology built around these (and previous) deaths, and the ways in which the stories we tell ourselves about our past shape our present and inevitably our future. As the estate and the family crumble under the weight of passing years, the buried truths struggle to resurface as various members of the family seek to finally come to terms with what really happened. Slow-moving and intricate, The White Lie is unflinching in its examination of how we hurt the ones we love - this is ultimately a family drama rather than a whodunnit. Mesmerising. (

)

imyril | Mar 28, 2013 |

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 7 (next | show all)

▾Published reviews

no reviews | add a review

▾Other authors

» Add other authors

▾Series and work relationships

▾Awards and Honors

view history

▾Common Knowledge

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.

For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.

Canonical title

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2012

People/Characters

Important places

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

First words

Quotations

Last words

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

▾Book descriptions

"'One hot summer day, Michael Salter, nineteen-year-old scion of a posh Highland family, disappears. When his childlike aunt claims she drowned him during a fight, the family closes ranks. No police. No memorial service. No titbits for village gossips. A decade of deceit begins." -- Financial Times The Salter family orbits around Peattie House, their crumbling Scottish estate filled with threadbare furniture, patrician memories, and all the secrets that go with them. While they are gathered for their grandmother's seventieth birthday, someone breaks the silence. The web begins to unravel. But what is the white lie? How many others are built upon it? How many lives have been changed because of it? Only one person knows the whole truth. From beyond the grave, Michael loops back into the past until we see, beyond perception and memory, how deeply our decisions resound, and just what is the place, and price, of grandeur. Andrea Gillies brings us inside a big house and a great family, with an elegantly written novel of eccentric characters, twists and turns and redirects, and shocking revelations'"--

▾Library descriptions

No library descriptions found.

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

On a hot summer's afternoon, Ursula Salter runs sobbing from the loch on her parents' Scottish estate and confesses, distraught, that she has killed Michael, her 19 year old nephew.

But what really happened? No body can be found, and Ursula's story is full of contradictions. In order to protect her, the Salters come up with another version of events, a decision that some of them will come to regret.

Years later, at a family gathering, a witness speaks up and the web of deceit begins to unravel. What is the white lie? Only one person knows the whole truth. Narrating from beyond the grave, Michael takes us to key moments in the past, looping back and back until - finally - we see what he sees.

Haiku summary