Andreas Campomar
Spanish Practices
All Men Are Liars
By Alberto Manguel (Translated by Miranda France)
Alma Books 288pp £12.99 order from our bookshop
As an adolescent Alberto Manguel had the privilege of reading aloud to Jorge Luis Borges, who was by now blind, on a weekly basis. Judging from this new novel, Borges not only imbued Manguel with a great love of reading, which has informed the latter’s oeuvre, but also with a gift for mischief. In All Men Are Liars, the author has written a meticulously constructed and brilliantly executed discourse on the nature of truth and writing. Moreover, he has managed to create a work that is expertly weighted: at once Latin American in spirit and yet universal in its reach.
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