Why Did You Lie
2018 Longlist

Why Did You Lie?

Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb
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ABOUT
THE BOOK

A journalist on the track of an old case attempts suicide.

An ordinary couple return from a house swap in the states to find their home in disarray and their guests seemingly missing.

Four strangers struggle to find shelter on a windswept spike of rock in the middle of a raging sea.

They have one thing in common: they all lied.

And someone is determined to punish them…

Why Did You Lie? is a terrifying tale of long-delayed retribution from Iceland’s Queen of Suspense.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Yrsa
Sigurdardottir

Author of the bestselling Thora Gudmundsdottir crime series and several stand-alone thrillers, Yrsa Sigurdardottir was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1963 and works as a civil engineer. She made her crime fiction debut in 2005 with Last Rituals, the first instalment in the Thora Gudmundsdottir series, and has been translated into more than 30 languages. Her work stands ‘comparison with the finest contemporary crime writing anywhere in the world’ according to the Times Literary Supplement. The second instalment in the Thora Gudmundsdottir series, My Soul to Take, was shortlisted for the 2010 Shamus Award. In 2011 her stand-alone horror novel I Remember You was awarded the Icelandic Crime Fiction Award and was nominated for The Glass Key. Her novel The Silence of the Sea won the Petrona Award in 2015.

Author of the bestselling Thora Gudmundsdottir crime series and several stand-alone thrillers, Yrsa Sigurdardottir was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1963 and works as a civil engineer. She made her crime fiction debut in 2005 with Last Rituals, the first instalment in the Thora Gudmundsdottir series, and has been translated into more than 30 languages. Her work stands ‘comparison with the finest contemporary crime writing anywhere in the world’ according to the Times Literary Supplement. The second instalment in the Thora Gudmundsdottir series, My Soul to Take, was shortlisted for the 2010 Shamus Award. In 2011 her stand-alone horror novel I Remember You was awarded the Icelandic Crime Fiction Award and was nominated for The Glass Key. Her novel The Silence of the Sea won the Petrona Award in 2015.

ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Victoria
Cribb

Victoria Cribb is a freelance translator of Icelandic literature. Her translations of Icelandic authors published in English include crime novels by Arnaldur Indriðason, The Blue Fox and From the Mouth of the Whale by Sjón, and Stone Tree by Gyrðir Elíasson. She has an MA in Icelandic and Scandinavian Studies from UCL and a BPhil in Icelandic from the University of Iceland, and lived and worked in Reykjavík for a number of years as a publisher, journalist, and translator. She is currently completing a PhD in Old Icelandic at the University of Cambridge.

Victoria Cribb is a freelance translator of Icelandic literature. Her translations of Icelandic authors published in English include crime novels by Arnaldur Indriðason, The Blue Fox and From the Mouth of the Whale by Sjón, and Stone Tree by Gyrðir Elíasson. She has an MA in Icelandic and Scandinavian Studies from UCL and a BPhil in Icelandic from the University of Iceland, and lived and worked in Reykjavík for a number of years as a publisher, journalist, and translator. She is currently completing a PhD in Old Icelandic at the University of Cambridge.

NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

Three stories of differently troubled relationships are all connected by a past crime in this tightly plotted mystery. Why Did You Lie? is a gloomy crime novel which deals with issues of grief, mistrust, paranoia and (of course) lies.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
01/01/2017
Country
Iceland
Original Language
Icelandic
Publisher
Hodder and Stoughton
Translator
Victoria Cribb
Translation
Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb

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