num_pages: 181
description: A New York Review Books OriginalThe lies we tell ourselves and the lies we tell othersis the subject of this Tove Janssons most unnerving and unpredictable novel. Here Jansson takes a darker look at the subjects that animate the best of her work from her sensitive tale of island life The Summer Book to her famous Moomin stories: solitude and community art and life love and hate. Snow has been falling on the village all winter long. It covers windows and piles up in front of doors. The sun rises late and sets early and even during the day there is little to do but trade tales. This year everybodys talking about Katri Kling and Anna Aemelin. Katri is a yellow-eyed outcast who lives with her simpleminded brother and a dog she refuses to name. She has no use for the white lies that smooth social intercourse and she can see straight to the core of any problem. Anna an elderly childrens book illustrator appears to be Katris opposite: a respected member of the village if an aloof one. Anna lives in a large empty house venturing out in the spring to paint exquisitely detailed forest scenes. But Anna has something Katri wants and to get it Katri will take control of Annas life and livelihood. By the time spring arrives the two women are caught in a conflict of ideals that threatens to strip them of their most cherished illusions.
language: English
title: The True Deceiver
publisher: NYRB Classics