Andreas Campomar
Spanish Practices
All Men Are Liars
By Alberto Manguel (Translated by Miranda France)
Alma Books 288pp £12.99
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.
Divided into five parts, All Men Are Liars opens with a witty conceit: Alberto Manguel, ‘flabby and scruffy’, recalls his acquaintanceship with an Argentine exile, Alejandro Bevilacqua, who fell to his death from Manguel’s balcony after the publication of a first novel, In Praise of Lying,
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
How to ruin a film - a short guide by @TWHodgkinson:
Thomas W Hodgkinson - There Was No Sorcerer
Thomas W Hodgkinson: There Was No Sorcerer - Box Office Poison: Hollywood’s Story in a Century of Flops by Tim Robey
literaryreview.co.uk
How to ruin a film - a short guide by @TWHodgkinson:
Thomas W Hodgkinson - There Was No Sorcerer
Thomas W Hodgkinson: There Was No Sorcerer - Box Office Poison: Hollywood’s Story in a Century of Flops by Tim Robey
literaryreview.co.uk
Give the gift that lasts all year with a subscription to Literary Review. Save up to 35% on the cover price when you visit us at https://literaryreview.co.uk/subscribe and enter the code 'XMAS24'