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  • The Liar

  • By: Stephen Fry
  • Narrated by: Stephen Fry
  • Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (655 ratings)
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The Liar cover art

The Liar

By: Stephen Fry
Narrated by: Stephen Fry
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Summary

Stephen Fry's breathtakingly outrageous debut novel, by turns eccentric, shocking, brilliantly comic and achingly romantic. Adrian Healey is magnificently unprepared for the long littleness of life; unprepared too for the afternoon in Salzburg when he will witness the savage murder of a Hungarian violinist; unprepared to learn about the Mendax device; unprepared for more murders and wholly unprepared for the truth.

©1991 Stephen Fry (P)1995 Random House Audio

What listeners say about The Liar

Average customer ratings
Overall
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic Listen

Loved this from start to finish, very intimate detail in places, so maybe not for a prude, but very very entertaining. The characters develop well and you really start to get to know them. Being read by the author (Esp when it is Stephen Fry) is always a bonus.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent

As always the soothing tones of Stephen Fry make this audiobook a pleasure to listen to. Fry adds unique voices and the correct level of tone, pitch and intention into the text, working hard to really bring it alive.

I would have given this 5*'s but the book was let down by the bizarre ending! A fault of the story line and not the audio reading!

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Unmitigated gratuitous gay porn

Wow - Stephen Fry, how do you get away with it! I am not a fuddy-duddy, this takes masturbation to a new level - that is of course if you really want to go down that road. Anyway, I can now give the Stephen Fry total expos? machine a complete miss.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Extremely dissappointing

I absolutely love Stephen Fry. His humour is for me amongst the most enjoyable and his reading is always exceptional. However, in this, his first novel, there is so much gay sex and inuendo about it that I have been quite put off and won't even bother to finish it. Such a shame.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Funny, witty and very well acted

If you could sum up The Liar in three words, what would they be?

Funny, Witty, interesting

What other book might you compare The Liar to, and why?

I've honestly got nothing to compare this to. It is very stange with a winding plot that still remains interesting. The individulal scenes are excellantly written and acted. Especially near the end.

What does Stephen Fry bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

He is the greatest voice actor in the world. I think that is understood. The book wouldn't be half as good without him and he's the reason i bought the book.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The epilogue.

Any additional comments?

If you like Stephen Fry in both his writing and voice acting then buy this book. If you don't like him then you won't like this. It is Stephen to the core.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic

Listened to it twice now, excellent book. Can't get enough of Stephen Fry's publications, there's alway a twist at the end

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible characters imaginative story

I have fallen in ... lib with both Adrian Healey and Donald Trefuses.

Mr mendacious and Doctor duplicitous are two of the most roguishly likeable characters I have had the pleasure of reading about and thus imagining.

I urge anyone to purchase, listen then listen again and perhaps again.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

What the damn hell?

Terrible story telling. All over the place. Stuck on because I enjoy Mr Fry's writing & I had nothing else to listen to. What?

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Not as good as the abridged version!

I had an abridged version of this audiobook on cassette many years ago which was excellent. I then bought the full length version and have to say that I was disappointed.

The language and content was far more graphic than it needed to be on this format.

It is a very clever story with many twists and turns and would have been so much more enjoyable as a "12A" as opposed to an "18" version.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable

The character is pretty much Fry himself and that spoilt the book for me. I find myself wanting him to move away from his own experiences and write about something else. That said it is of course brilliantly read and wonderfully worded. Of course maybe the fact that this character is a cheat and a liar is Fry's way of empahsising that here he is passing off this work of fiction when it's nothing more than himself inserted into a story?! Maybe he's being Ironic - I dont know, I liked it but he's done better.

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3 people found this helpful