Book Talk: The Liar

Paul Larkin and Morten Høi Jensen discuss Martin A. Hansen’s The Liar, one of the greatest works of modern Scandinavian fiction, out April 4 from NYRB Classics in new translation by Larkin with an introduction by Jensen.

First published in 1950, The Liar tells the story of Johannes Lye, a teacher and parish clerk on tiny Sand Island off the coast of Denmark, a place that in winter is entirely cut off from the world at large by ice. It is winter when the book begins, and for years now Johannes has lived alone, even as he nurses a secret passion for Annemari, a former pupil. Annemari is engaged to a local man, Olaf, who has left the island but is due to return come spring. She is also being courted by a young engineer from the mainland.

Such are the chief players in a compact drama, recorded in Johannes’s ironic, self-lacerating, and anything but reliable diary.

Martin A. Hansen’s novel beautifully evokes the stark landscape of Sand Island and the immemorial circuit of the seasons as well as the mysterious passage of time in the human heart, all the while proceeding to a supremely suspenseful conclusion.

This program will take place in-person at Scandinavia House; reservation required.