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Power of lie, powerful as much as truth

Posted September. 09, 2017 07:21,   

Updated September. 09, 2017 08:11

한국어
There is a secret that everybody wants to know. How much effort and energy are you willing to put in to find out the secret? Will you accept the offer if you have to tell a lie to disclose the secret?  

 

This full-length fantasy mystery novel directly asks a question about a deeply hidden human desire to pick the forbidden fruit.  

 

It is a story of a 14-year-old girl named Faith who lived in England, about 10 years later since Darwin published "The Origin of Species" in 1859. This young girl decided to reveal the truth behind the questionable death of her father. His father was a scientist, who discovered a famous fossil, as well as a preacher.

 

What she had faced was a lie tree. The tree that bears fruit with lies and tells a secret to people who ate its fruit. The weight of secret gets heavier if it’s a bigger lie, and spreads fast.

 

Faith began to tell lies to the tree and slowly fell into the temptation as she felt the pleasure of spreading lies to people.

 

Faith has to continue to tell lies to find the truth, and readers wish to move on to the next story fast in the middle of ironic situation. Victorian costumes, custom and street scenes are vividly depicted and you can also feel the mood of the time when the doctrine of evolution and creation competes fiercely. Back in an era when people firmly believed that men’s skulls are bigger than women’s and men are smarter than women, women cannot be smart or be equipped with a skill, Faith takes on what she has to do with ambition. This appears to be an encouragement to all girls.

 

This book describes complex psychology and desire of humans in various ways and is also fun to read. It received the Costa Book Awards, one of the UK’s most prestigious literary prizes, for the second time as a young adult fiction, following "The Golden Compass" written by Philip Pullman. The powerful force based on well-established narrative makes the book attractive to adult readers. Louise Goodsill, producer of "The Phantom of the Opera," and "August Rush" decided to make a film based on this book. The original title of this book is "The Lie Tree."



Hyo-Lim Son aryssong@donga.com