The White Lie

by Andrea Gillies

'A stunning debut novel from the winner of the Orwell Prize 2010 and the inaugural Wellcome Trust Book Prize 2009

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.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Scotland, Contemporary, Historical Fiction, Family, Crime

383 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

I was born in York and went to school there, went to St Andrews University,then worked in theatre publicity and as a journalist and editor. Married another freelance, had three children,and lived in Somerset, Orkney, France. Now separated and living in Edinburgh. Spent 2 years looking after my mother-in-law, who has Alzheimer's, and wrote a diary which became a book: KEEPER, which won the Wellcome and the Orwell. THE WHITE LIE, a first novel, was published in February 2012. Currently writing a second novel, a love triangle of sorts.

A website, andreagillies.com, will be up and running in summer 2012. Meanwhile, there's a facebook page.

You can read newspaper reviews of THE WHITE LIE here: http://shortbooks.co.uk/book/the-whit...

Reviews

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

there are many books that have, at their center, a juicy family secret. there are fewer books that have more than once juicy family secret at their center. and there are fewer still that have multiple juicy family secrets, each wrapped in one or several layers of additional secrets so just when you think you have uncovered the truth, you are TRICKED and the "truth" is just another protective lie coating the truly true truth.

this book is one of those.

it is a very slow and deliberate book. everything takes its time, everything is described within an inch of its life, and that makes it, in my mind, the perfect book for a cold winter afternoon. or several - this is a nearly-500 page book after all. but it's a warm woolen blanket kind of book; you just want to wrap it around yourself and get deeper and deeper inside of it, layering yourself under each character, following the thread of the narrative as it slips through time, getting to the bottom of the story of a family for whom tragedy has become the norm.

this is the best kind of historical fiction - you have a once-grand family hiding behind their ancestral walls, whose bad luck has isolated them from most of the surrounding townsfolk, and yet, rather than taking comfort in their cloistered, shared grief, the family is completely fractured as generation after generation reels from death, disappearance, and the burden of their secrets and the world moves on without them in it, as their once enviable wealth dwindles while they rattle around in a house too full of memories.

great stuff.

it took me a little while to find my footing, but once i got absorbed in the pacing and characters, it was fantastic. very addictive storytelling here, and just when you think you have gotten to the bottom of it (the michael storyline, anyway) BOOM! sorry, jk, this is what really happened. NO, THIS!!! etc.

very satisfying, and a perfect winter book. which is fortuitous, because it comes out in december, you lucky patient people.

come to my blog!

[Joy Chapman · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tend to persevere with books I am finding hard to read, but this one got the better of me... I found it so hard to get into - very wordy about things which could have been described better in more simple terms. It may have improved if I had given it more time, but it just didn't feel like it. I just really didn't enjoy it...

[Cleopatra Pullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book easily makes it into one of my favourite books of 2012. This had been on my wish-list for some time when I decided to save it for my holiday, this was a wise choice as it is a sizeable book both in number of pages and quality of the story told. This really was was a tale I was able to become totally immersed in.

Despite lying on a beach, the texture and depth of the writing meant I could almost feel the biting cold of a Scottish Loch where Michael is believed to be lying dead. The story weaves backwards and forwards, narrated in part by Michael who is able to see those visiting the memorial of Great Uncle David as well as visiting events in the past. His death isn't the only one to haunt his mother Ottilie, years before she had been at the beach when her young brother Sebastian also met his death in the water.

The title is the clue to what is inside its pages, what the reader is told isn't always the truth, some lies have been told so often that they now seem like the truth.

A wonderful story, written beautifully with perfectly drawn characters and a huge amount of sadness makes for a perfect book in my mind.

[Bibliophile · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Salters have many secrets to keep: two suspicious deaths, the paternity of the narrator (who happens to be dead), the source of one family member's seriously odd behaviour. There is also the question of which secrets to keep secret and which to divulge, not to mention the false secrets they tell in order to divert attention from the real ones. To call the book The White Lie is a bit of an understatement, is what I'm saying.

All the lying and secrecy keeps them busy, which is good because there doesn't seem to be much else to do on their grand, isolated Scottish estate. You might think that keeping secrets is about keeping quiet, but you would be wrong. They have endless conversations about their secrets. "Does A know that B told C about D?" "Yes, because C told F who told me. Wait. You're talking about a completely different secret? Oh, then never mind."

The book is too long, and the pacing uneven. You would have to take notes while reading to keep track of who knows what when (the story skips back and forth in time), but half the time I wasn't sure why it mattered. For an omniscient narrator, dead Michael is rather coy about the truth. It is a pleasant read though, with some lovely descriptions of the dusty old family home and surroundings, believable characters and a nice, dreamy atmosphere. Here and there the dialogue was brilliant, and I would have loved to see more of that wry humour.

Finally, I would like to share with you great grandmother Vita's helpful six-point test for choosing a husband:

"Temperature. He should be sensitive to your comfort. Such as at an evening party. Have your shawl in a convenient location that prompts him to offer it to you" (also applies for cardigans)

"The morning test. Engineer an early meeting, for hiking or suchlike at your own suggestion. Is he tolerant about the effort required?"

"Illness. How he treats you when you are under the weather."

"Is he charming to the plainer and duller among your friends and family? Can he resist the temptation to satirise them in private company?"

"Imaginative gift giving."

"He must be a man of action and of the arts. A man who returns from the office and drinks and watches television may be a man to have for Christmas but is not a man to have for life."

Valuable advice indeed.

[Gail · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boy was I relieved to get to the end of this. The writing itself was rather lovely with some beautiful descriptive passages but dear God the characters were awful. A family of self-obsessed, dysfunctional misfits who lied their way through life to avoid the what they perceived to be mundane reality. By the time I got to the end through this nonsense I'd stopped caring about how, why or if Michael had died. The white lies, red herrings , call them what you will, all became too complex and convoluted and frankly lacking in interest. A real shame because Gillies is obviously a talented writer.

[Shelagh McKinlay · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're in a hurry, one word - brilliant. If not read on to find out why.

"The White Lie" is that rarest of literary beasts, an unputdownable page turner with a finely wrought human drama at its heart.

The book is narrated from beyond the grave by a young man, Michael Salter, who is drowned in the loch on his family's Highland estate, his childlike and psychologically damaged aunt, Ursula, insisting that she is responsible for his death.

The book then skilfully unravels not just the mystery of what happened to Michael, but the tangled web of secrets that bind the members of the Salter clan. The driving central narrative, which returns time and again to what happened on the loch that day, gradually reveals not just the truth of Michael's death, but the insidious lies which corrode the Salters' carefully constructed myth of family. The book's construction masterfully sustains the suspense of the plot, but also allows the author to explore the family's collective guilt.

This is Gillies' great achievement, that while the quest to uncover the truth about Michael's death grips from the very first page, the book is also an absorbing study of love, loss, guilt and memory. Beautifully written with an elegance which serves the meaning, rather than being literary showmanship for its own sake, "The White Lie" is a vivid portrait of a family struggling to cast off the weight of its history.

The sense of place is beautifully evoked, the Peattie estate with its dusty corridors and shabby elegance vividly brought to life. The characters are vital, truthful and a great vehicle for some wonderful comedic moments, for while this is a serious book it is not always solemn. I found the climax both satisfying and very moving. This is a book which will stay with you long after you turn the last page.

[LG · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Michael or his extended family piques your interest in the opening tragedy – and they don’t everyone’s – you’ll keep reading and be ultimately rewarded with an absorbing family saga. It’s not that the Salters are extraordinary; in fact, they’re all too typical in their fractionalized, casually cruel skeleton-keeping ways. White lies are agreed upon in the wake of family crises and kept up for appearance’ sake until one or another of them blurts out the truth. Or a version of the truth, at least. This is fine when the learner of the secret is a stranger, but not when it’s another Salter. Disquietingly realistic.

It was interesting to learn afterwards (not a spoiler, I hope) that the author changed her narrator after her first draft. So the drowned Michael only seems like The Lovely Bones’ Susie Salmon on the surface of it. His is a story without heaven on its mind, although he’s also as much an omniscient storyteller as a character in his own right. He has to be, to contend with the rest of his insular family. Aside from obnoxious Ursula, who admits she caused her nephew’s death, you’ll find plenty of villains to hate and victims to side with, from enigmatic Ottilie and indulgent Edith to melancholy Mog and smarmy Alan Dixon. I found Vita delightful, Izzy refreshing, Alastair a puzzling bit player, and Jet – well, you tell me what you think of Jet … All are illustrated in a family tree, but I’d advise against trying to memorize their relationships as you read. Just let Michael tell you his evocative story until the bittersweet end.

[Nene La Beet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book. At first it has all the markings of an effective thriller. But as you get into it you find that it is much more than that. If such a category existed, I'd call it a 'psychological family thriller'.

Everybody who lives in a family ripe with conflict, unspoken "truths" and lurking conflicts will understand what I mean.

Andrea Gillies has a rich and beautiful language, but she never uses fancy words or phrases merely to show off. There's always a reason. I think my favourite turn of phrase was this: "A feast of emphasis"! Wait till you read the book and get to that place.

Gillies investigates all the bonds and all the animosities in a large family. Most of them so utterly recognisable. And she does it in the context of an intellectual thriller, which has you racing through the book at as high a speed as possible without missing out on the great writing.

Unfortunately, I have never been to Scotland, so I have only photographers' and painters' images to fall back on when reading about the scenery there. I certainly hope to go some day.

[Paula Dembeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel published in 2012 was Gillies' debut, although it was not her first book. She had previously published a memoir titled “Keeper” about caring for her mother-in law who had Alzheimer’s disease. Her first novel once again draws attention to the subject of family, this time the aristocratic Salters who for generations have lived on an old, remote, crumbling estate in the Scottish Highlands called Peattie. It includes a large main house, various out buildings and several cottages and the sprawling grounds also include a woodland, several gardens and a loch. The family has always remained apart from the nearby village, rarely interacting with its neighbors and maintaining the distance the Salters deemed appropriate to maintain their upper-class status.

The novel opens with the voice of its nineteen-year-old narrator Michael Slater, the oldest grandchild and heir to the family’s remaining fortune, announcing he is dead. he then quickly moves on to introduce his family who make up the large cast of characters the reader most sort out and get to know over the next pages. It is not just the number of people, but their quirky names that will challenge the reader to keep their relationships straight. Gillies wisely chose to include a chart of the family tree at the front of the book and readers may find themselves referring to it often until they gain their footing among the children, grandchildren, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, husbands and wives! But most of the story focuses on Michael, his grandparents Henry and Edith Salter, their twin daughters Ottilie and Joan and their younger sister Ursula, a simple minded eccentric young woman. Joan is married to Euan and they have three children, among them Mog, who was close to Michael. Alan Dixon, the son of George, the long-time estate gardener, is not a member of the family but also plays a role in the events that follow. Ottilie is Michael’s single mother. She never married and refused to name the father of her child, a major point of contention between herself and her son.

The family has experienced personal tragedy over the years but has handled their affairs on their own, creating lies to protect themselves from the police, village gossip and as a way to avoid blame. These lies, told over the years and reworked with each telling, have helped the family bear the unbearable. Their falsehoods disguise guilt by using the myth of accidents, allowing the family to protect their name, their property and move on with their lives. The stories, a mix of half-truths, silence about known facts and created scenarios, are so embedded in the family that years after a difficult event, the truth of what happened remains elusive. However, Edith’s seventieth birthday party serves as a breaking point, a catalyst that begins to unravel and expose these long-kept secrets.

The story begins as Ursula, the simple, childlike and unpredictable adult daughter of Edith and Henry, rushes to her mother and tearfully blurts out she has killed Michael. She explains how they were in the boat at the loch, began arguing and she became so angry, she hit him on the head with an oar. He lost his balance, fell out of the boat, sank in the loch and disappeared. She then shuts down and refuses to say anymore. Alan Dixon confirms her story, and says he witnessed it all from the shore. The family rushes to the water but there is no body. Henry says the loch is too deep to dredge and the family quickly meets to close ranks and create their own story of what happened. It is what they feel is necessary to protect Ursula from the police and themselves from the truth. They do not call the police and skip a memorial service because in the story they create, neither is necessary. They chose to say that Michael had simply left the estate without telling anyone, wanting to create a new life of his own. The story has a ring of truth about it as it was widely known Michael had been unhappy for some time. He was obsessed with knowing who his father was and angry his mother would not tell him. Once again, deceit is created, a method the family has used before when years ago, Henry and Edith’s four-year-old son Sebastian also fell in the loch and drowned.

Michael continues leading the narrative, helping readers negotiate their way through the facts, theories, and various details of his recent death. As they are told and retold again and again by various family members and estate staff, new details emerge, questions arise, contradictions and inconsistencies are pointed out and discussed. The problem readers face is trying to figure out what is true, what is imagined and what has been made up. Questions of suicide emerge, and another, that Michael is indeed still alive and living somewhere with a wife and family. These possible scenarios evolve amid age old family jealousies, feuds, and rivalries, as confusing and contradictory details surface, inexcusable questions are never asked and family members become more and more stressed by keeping secrets, ones they refer to as white lies. It is frustrating as readers develop their own theory of Michael’s death, but when it seems they are edging closer to the truth, another detail emerges and their theory falls apart.

Gillies creates a close and heavy atmosphere in this novel, painting detailed scenes of the highlands, the estate gardens, the woods and the loch. She adds details of the clothes her characters wear and the food they eat, establishing a tone of grandeur while at the same time created a sense of the everyday, when the family simply eats toast and cold meats.

The story questions the reliability of family history, asking whether something is true simply because it has been repeated over the years. It explains the family’s premise for creating the white lies they believe are a necessary, because it allows them to be kind, and being kind is sometimes more important than telling the truth. Since calling an event an accident avoids the issue of blame, what does it matter if in the telling, events are adjusted a little? And really, does the truth ever need to be told?

The main problem I had with the novel was the many time shifts that occur throughout the narrative. They were jarring and confusing and readers may find it difficult to determine exactly what point they are at in the linear evolution of the story. At one point, the story jumped from Michael’s school days to days after his disappearance, to a decade later with the family discussing it. But on the positive side, the writing was well done, the characters detailed and vividly drawn, and the pacing was solid.

This is more than a “who-dunnit” mystery. It asks important questions, serves as a reminder the truth often wins out over lies and serves as a cautionary note about the effect of secrets on family ties, relationships and personal suffering.

It proved to be a very good read.

[Katie Fleetwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

White lies: harmless, trivial, told usually to save someone's feelings. Not so the white lie at the heart of Andrea Gillies' début novel. The happenings of one summer's day on Peattie Loch, nestling at the heart of the cumbling Salter estate, between Michael Salter and his peculiar, dreamy aunt Ursula, are shrouded in a web of half-truths and white lies the Salter family have woven in a vain attempt to hold together their fracturing family.

Gillie's first book 'Keeper', an account of her time spent as chief carer to her mother-in-law, was also a meditation on memory, identity and family. She has tackled these themes once again in 'The White Lie' and produced a chilling piece of work about the instability of family dynamic and personal history, the lengths to which we will go to protect our own and the inevitable momentum gained by suppressed truths.

A satisfyingly intricate plot, unique and deeply flawed characters and a stunning, haunting style of story-telling as Michael quietly slips in and out of the narrative, guiding it between the troubled, unreliable past of the Salter family and their present, as each family member continues to come to come to terms with the far-reaching consequences of that summer's afternoon make for a complex and richly rewarding read.

[Shawna C · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting premise but unfortunate execution. Much too long, with so much time hopping and character telling I was confused more than once which character was doing the telling. I got tired of constantly being told things, in very detailed descriptive language that felt like it was being repeated so we'd get it. Or all the added nuances, that to me were pretty obvious. It seemed to bring home the adage to writers to Show your readers don't Tell the story. I was about to do something I never do, give it up and not bother finishing it, but finally skimmed rest of it to see if it ever got better. Unfortunately, I didn't feel any of the secrets were very secret or a surprise. I guess the biggest surprise to me was the muddled story with so many muddled characters. Sad, I had hoped for so much more.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, complex family saga, which explores the nature of memory and reality. Gillies has a beautiful prose style and creates complex, compelling characters and a plot that like a tangled skein of yarn, unravels, string by string, with foreboding, proving the old cliche about what happens"when we practice to deceive." The Scottish setting and narrative descriptions soar and pull you into that world. Highly recommended.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't read many contemporary novels but this one just caught my eye. Not only did it have a series of glowing reviews but had an interesting premise. The book is narrated by Michael who is dead and has been dead for the past 14 years. He is a somewhat unreliable narrator as it is very difficult to distinguish his true memories from the lies that fellow family members spin. The book begins with his aunt Ursula confessing that she has murdered her 19 year old nephew. The family decides to let Michael rest forgotten at the bottom of the loch in order to protect Ursula who is clearly mentally unstable. As the story progresses it becomes apparent that Michael's "disappearance" is not the only secret the family hold. There is the mystery of Michael's father and the circumstances surrounding the dead of Sebastian, Michael's four year old nephew who drowned before he was born.

The story is intense and the reader cannot be certain of anything other than the fact that Michael is dead. The writing was beautiful and dense and thus took me longer than usual to finish. A great psychological thriller.

[Bernadette Robinson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Where to begin with this one? I was looking forward to this book when I started it. I'd randomly picked it off the shelves in my local Library and deep down I wish I'd left it there now I've finished it.

Why might you ask am I saying that I wish I'd left it there. As I wasn't that keen on it. I don't find it easy giving up on books and I persevered and read it all the way through. I can't say that there were any redeeming things about it.

Narrated by Michael who was either killed or has gone missing, this story rambles on and on. With a large list of characters, with a family tree at the beginning of the book to help you remember who is who. You will still get confused and wonder who is who, I know I did. I didn't relate to any of the characters and couldn't have cared less about who did what to who.

I feel that the story could have been told in a lot less pages and would have been a far more gripping book.

Only read this if you've got time to watch paint dry as it's very similar. 3/10.

[Ilyhana Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a bit of a challenge to keep up with who's talking and in what time phase in this story, so paying attention is vital to gradually grasping what goes on in this family.
The drifting into lengthy descriptive 'doze reading' zone from time to time is deceptive as well. False sense of security. Suddenly a new piece of the puzzle is revealed and it's "wait a minute, what just happened there?"
This is a convoluted and complex tale, wrought from grief, and the pain caused by the resistance to pain, by the not talking, by the secrets, and the lies of omission.
The narration is handled with masterly skill. To speak from the missing "dead" man is an original perspective that allows quite an "inside observer" role for the reader.
The prominent theme of the novel is the ever converging space between truth and fantasy. There's a nice twist in the conclusion.

[Kristina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book confused me. It had me jumping everywhere all over. I feel like it took me forever to read because I had to go back every couple pages to see if I was in a flash back or present, and remember who the characters were. They were not laid out well enough to remember.
It was read from Micheal's point of view, which I did appreciate; however, that made it completely confusing for me. It really didn't pick up for me until the last 50 pages. I feel like I could have just read that and know exactly what the whole book was about. Some secrets were eye-opening but after awhile I wanted it to be over. I wanted to like this more but, nope.

[Biogeek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always love family secret sagas, mystery deaths and slow reveals, and White Lies has them all, and more. Narrated by the possibly drowned, murdered, missing Michael, the dysfunctional relationships among his surviving family (4 generations of them) take center stage.

This novel is based on the lies family tell each other and the secrets they keep. Every few pages Gillies reveals that some family member has concealed something from others, leaving the reader with an intriguing blend of lies of all colors.

[Blake · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sigh. This book reminded me of the movie that starred Parker Posey, Tori Spelling and some other actors in a mid-nineties indie film called The House of Yes where lame but supposedly shocking family secrets are revealed making the whole down on their luck "aristcratic" family implode yet none of the revelations were really a secret and all the characters are just delusional. Plus the narrator is a dead 19 year old... Unless this is "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold; don't go there.
Not a re-read and horribly boring.

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could not finish this boook-i just found it heavy going and i got confused with all the characters.
I read 140 pages then skipped to the end.

[Anna]

There's a really good story in here, but it's lost amongst a crazy amount of excess waffle and I just don't have the patience to go looking for it. DNF.

[Lisa James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one garnered 3 stars from me because with all the twists & turns present here, it was easy to lose track of who did what & who was guilty of hiding what secrets & why. That said, this book centers around Michael, 19, & not just his parentage, which is both complicated & twisted, but his death/disappearance. I slashed those because there's a story around each possibility. His family, the Salters, & the family that married in, the Catto's, are both prominent families in their area of Scotland. Michael himself narrates the story, giving you some of the actualities of what DID happen, even though the family either doesn't know, or somebody knows & nobody is telling, or has told & wasn't believed. The title makes you believe there is just one "white lie" that was told. In reality, there are quite a few, & they seem to layer onto one another. The ending is tied up neatly, thankfully, & without spoiling it, it's well done. They say that class has its privileges. This is a good case for it.

[Nicola Nicholson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did enjoy this book. It's well written with a dreamy,dusty atmosphere and the twists and turns of the story are intriguing but I did find myself completely lost at times. I could not hold who was who and what relation they were to each other and what was a lie and what wasn't in my head. I suspect that this is sort of the point,everyone is an unreliable narrator but it was just a bit too long for me and I found myself not caring who did what and not very involved with the denouement. I will definitely read other books by this author though as the quality of the writing was excellent.

[Tonina Cloquell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Em costa molt deixar un llibre sense acabar, així que l'he acabat tot i no ser gran cosa. Des de que comença fins que acaba hi ha la promesa d'un "secret", una intriga. Però aquesta promesa no s'arriba a materialitzar. En canvi, no fa més que donar voltes i voltes damunt els mateixos fets, canviant de versió i llavors tornant a la versió anterior. En fi... el que diríem un llibre de vacances. 2.5

[Susan Krich · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is too much jumping from time and place to time and place.
There is also too much philosophy throughout.

[Maddie Irvine Carlson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly written, lots of back and forth between time lines, but plot twists lie ahead.

[Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too wordy. Anticlimactic.

[Sydney Bridges · Rating 1 out of 5]

It took everything I had to persevere through this book. Such a tough read and not at all worth it.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book until 3/4 through it when it became very tedious.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

enjoyable light read

[Paninlabirenti · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ömrümden bir 10 gün eksildi boş yere.