My Liar: A Novel

Synopsis: Rachel Cline’s debut novel, What to Keep, was praised as “striking . . . lovely” (Entertainment Weekly), “tangibly real” (Los Angeles Times), and “eminently readable” (Salon). Set in 1990s Hollywood, My Liar portrays the complex connection between two talented women, each striving to realize her own vision of success in work and in love.

Annabeth Jensen, thirty-three, is a film editor. A native Minnesotan, she is most comfortable playing nice and working behind the scenes, even after ten years in Los Angeles. Then she crosses paths with up-and-coming director Laura Katz. Self-confident, assertive, and alluring, Laura seems to be the perfect mentor and the ideal best friend–especially after she hires Annabeth to edit her new film, Trouble Doll.

Yet as Annabeth cuts and recuts the film that both women hope will assure their futures, she finds herself wanting creative control almost as badly as she craves Laura’s approval. Meanwhile, Laura, who trusts almost no one (certainly not her slippery producer, her brittle screenwriter, or her wayward husband), finds herself increasingly reliant on Annabeth. And when Trouble Doll emerges from their collaboration, uncomfortable truths about both women’s lives are forced into the light.

Rachel Cline illuminates the world of moviemaking with keen insight and wry wit. But My Liar looks far beyond the HOLLYWOOD sign. Its real subject is self-deception–in friendship, art, and life–and the enmeshed nature of communication and competition between women.

Praise for My Liar:
“Veteran screenwriter Cline’s second offering confirms her ability to expertly render complex characters entangled in uneasy alliances.”–Booklist

“My Liar is a seductive charmer of a novel–funny, knowing, poignant, (inclusively) hip and gratifyingly adult at the same time. It is impossible not to be drawn in immediately to the various dramas at the book's center, including the main character's adolescent-crush of a friendship with the glamorous and tough-as-nails director she works for. This is one of the most enjoyable novels I've read in an age.”–Daphne Merkin, author of Enchantment

“Looking with an outsider’s fresh eye on that elusive place where Hollywood and Los Angeles–dreams and reality–intersect, Rachel Cline gives us an entirely new story of female friendships and careers in the movie business. This book shines as an architectural, literary, cinematic discovery.”–Carolyn See, author of There Will Never Be Another You

“My Liar is Rachel Cline’s tender, rueful tale of complicated people in a complicated city. Cline’s characters are wonderfully real, and through them she makes a case for kindness, self-forgiveness, and artistic integrity. A terrific read.”–Martha Moody, author of The Office of Desire

“In My Liar, Rachel Cline succeeds at being funny and tragic, satiric and deeply sympathetic, often in the same breath. With assured and compelling insight into the world of filmmaking–and into the fickleness of the human heart–Cline has written a beautifully balanced work, at once deftly entertaining and deeply felt.”–Katharine Noel