Liars and Saints

Ever anticipate a book, then sit down and read the first chapter and get a sinking feeling as you realize your expectations are most certainly going to be dashed? Yeah, that's how Liars and Saints made me feel. Although it was already on my to-read list, I bumped it to the top because I intended to......more

A writer friend suggested I read this, and I'm glad she did. Her question to me was simple: how did Ms Meloy create her characters so effortlessly? Normally, I would shy away from any novel with religious overtones, particularly catholic (it's a long story...), but I entered this one with a set task......more

What a beautiful book. Meloy writes the most unbelievable sentences; every thought is so well-crafted and simple that it makes you feel like you're breathing the story instead of actually reading a book. I really cannot begin to recommend this book highly enough and I'm not even sure why. Where else......more

‘Liars and Saints’ by Maile Meloy is excellent. The writing is superb, the characters are interesting. However, for me, it also was an intriguing study of a family. I felt like an anthropologist. I frequently feel like an anthropologist in reading domestic fiction about middle-class American familie......more

Lairs and Saints is a cleverly written and poetically told novel about three generations of a Catholic family, stretching from World War 2 to the present day. Oddly for a book that unravels for the reader so many stories about one family, I finished this book feeling distant from all of the characte......more