A stunning debut novel from the winner of the Orwell Prize 2010 and the inaugural Wellcome Trust Book Prize 2009.
On a hot summer's afternoon, Ursula Salter runs, sobbing, from the loch on her parents' Highland estate, and bursts into the house with devastating news: "Michael! I've killed him. I've killed him."
But has she? His body is never found and the contradictions in Ursula's strange, shocking testimony allow the Salters to construct a version of events that will protect her from suspicion and themselves from the truth. The official story - the one put about in the village - is that Michael has run away. And this is the accepted line until, thirteen years later, a birthday party is interrupted by a chilling revelation. At last, the tight web of deception, woven by generations of the Salter family, begins to unravel...
The White Lie is a tense, beautifully crafted novel about the poisonous ripple effect of unaddressed guilt.
