JoAnn G. (bookwoman28) reviewed on 3/20/2007 + 166 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

Eleven-year-old John Egan is a mixture of imaginative child and curious, devious, and somewhat weird adolescent, growing up poor and lonely in 1970's Ireland. He dreams of becoming world-famous as a "human lie detector," but his pursuits of this talent manage to alienate and sometimes frighten everyone around him. With a jobless and self-delusional father, a mother spiraling into depression, and a best friend who abandons him for greener pastures, John is left with few resources apart from those inside his unreliable head, and the reader is led with John to the very edge of tragedy. A compelling read, and shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize.

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