Liar's Dice

A Novel

De: Juliet Faithfull

An astonishing debut about a teenage girl in 1970s Brazil who is torn away from her twin sister—and who must learn what it means to fight for those she loves when all the odds are stacked against her.

Dolores and Mita grow up in rural Brazil, identical and inseparable. But Mita develops a mysterious illness that challenges the family. One day, Dolores wakes up to find her sister gone—sent to a hospital in their father’s native London. There is no Dolores without Mita. And now Mita is gone.

When the family moves to Rio, Dolores’ parents act as if Mita never existed. Lonely and grief-stricken, Dolores struggles to learn to read and write at the stodgy British School—until she meets Andrea, a headstrong, streetwise girl from the dangerous part of town. Andrea shows Dolores a new side of Rio—and how to survive it. As the dictatorship cracks down on dissenters, and people disappear, Dolores begins to wonder if her sister is dead, and her parents are lying. Determined to uncover the truth, Dolores is willing to do whatever it takes—lie, gamble and steal—to get her sister back.

Liar’s Dice captures the precarious intensity of coming of age in a volatile time—when repression and silence are the fabric of everyday life—and the cost of family secrets. Heartrending and tender, Juliet Faithfull’s debut novel is a testament to the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Pitch-perfect and full of heart, with language so evocative you can feel the heat of the summer and hear the rattle of gambling dice and envision the flash of sequins as the girls dance, for the last time, as a twosome.”—Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of By Any Other Name

“A tender, unforgettable tale that sings across time and vaults over lies and delivers a reader to the places they need to be.”—Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

“An unsettling and beautifully written story about a family wrestling with truth, loss, and their place in the world.”—Florence Knapp, New York Times bestselling author of The Names

“Juliet Faithfull holds her characters so gently, never losing sight of the love and hard-won forgiveness at the center of their lives.”—Lauren Fox, New York Times bestselling author of Send for Me

“I hesitate to call anything this beautiful ‘magic.’ It’s more than that; it’s a sacred healing. Faithfull is a master storyteller and visionary. She has captured a story to heal our own hearts in these uncertain times.”—Sandra Cisneros, bestselling author of The House on Mango Street

“A story of girls bound by an unspoken rhythm, of love that endures exile and betrayal, of one heart beating for two across oceans and shadows . . . a magnificent debut.”—Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of The Many Daughters of Afong Moy

“Juliet Faithfull is a tremendously gifted writer, and with her debut novel, she aims for the sky and she doesn’t miss.”—Annie Hartnett, bestselling author of The Road to Tender Hearts

“A nuanced exploration of family dynamics, sisterhood, and the search for belonging.”—Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake and Good Dirt

“Both intimate and expansive, Liar’s Dice sets the enduring relationship of separated twins Dolores and Mita against the fraught political backdrop of 1970s Brazil. Written with extraordinary compassion and insight, it is an immersive coming-of-age story that reveals the wild depths of the human heart.”—Frances de Pontes Peebles, author of The Air You Breathe