Anja the Liar

by Thomas Moran

Book Overview

In this New York Times Notable Book by the award-winning author of Water, Carry Me, two people's lives are forever altered by the horrors of World War II. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1573222607
• ISBN13: 9781573222600
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Riverhead Books
• Length: 322 Pages
• Weight: 1.31 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

almost perfect

I have read and loved all of Moran's other books - he has a way of bringing you into the place and time, and a way with drawing complex characters before your eyes. I eagerly read Anja the Liar, and sorry to see it end. The story has stayed in my mind for several days now - on one hand having pity for the two couples, on the other thinking that what happened to them was sweet revenge, and then again thinking: there but for the grace of luck goes us all. One problem with the book that keeps it from being perfect: As Anja learns to trust Walter and become secure, she meets his friend and they become bosom buddies. Anja shares secrets with her that is totally out of character with the wary, insular, secretive young lady from just a year before, so that the 180 degree turn did not fit. It was of course this newfound trust that drives the rest of the book, so I understand why the author did it. But it bothered me and still seemed a bit contrived. That being said - I highly recommend this powerful book that . Those characters will stay with me for a long time I suspect, as his other characters in other books have.

An interesting read

I found Anja the Liar to be one of those reads that, as you advance through it, it captures your interest. It is a hard book to recommend since it is somewhat difficult to define. It does have some interesting historical material related to the whole DP situation at the conclusion of WWII and the disbursement of people at that time. But I did think that the odd triangle that develops in the latter part of the novel is somehwat contrived ..and that some of the characters were not fully defined ...but saying all this, I did enjoy the novel and found it to be a real page turner towards the end.

Beautiful Imagery and Characters

Anyone who has read Moran's previous work knows that he has the uncanny ability to place the reader not only in the time and place of his characters, but also in their hearts and minds. You are where they are, feeling what they feel, suffering what they suffer. You feel all the joy and pain, along with the shame and guilt. It is this willingness to risk the reader's sympathy that sets Moran's writing apart. In Anja The Liar we are transported to a post-World War II Europe that is filled with uncertainty. Anja finds herself in a camp for displaced persons with no real desire to be released. She seems devoid of hope, and racked with guilt over her betrayals during the War. She meets Walter, and dares to think that there may be a way back to life. Like Anja, and most others, Walter also harbors his own guilt over actions he was "forced" to take during the war.From Poland, to Austria, to the Tyrol, or wherever the reader is taken, Moran describes the landscape, and the people, with absolute clarity. The detail he uses shows that this is an author who has done his research, and cares that the reader is given a real feel for the world in which these characters live. Anja The Liar is a beautiful, daring, and sometimes heartbreaking book. It is a journey you will want to take.

Great drama

In 1945 Anja Wienewska stands inside the fence that contains those refuges from the war with no papers. Former Wehrmact Captain Walter Fass sees her and begins talking to her in Polish, as he believes she is from Poland. Anja ignores him until he speaks in German; she insists she is German and not Polish. Anja is from Krakow, Poland where she betrayed her people to the German occupiers. Under Nazi control, she learned how to lie.Walter has dark secrets too from his time in Yugoslavia. Needing to atone and appease his conscience and help Anna, he marries her. They travel to his farm where she gives birth to their child as they share a camaraderie. However, as their past surfaces with the appearance of Walter's war comrade, their fragile relationship seems to go kaput as the war taught both to distrust everyone.ANJA THE LAIR is a deep look at the cost of a war on individuals trying to survive during the fighting and its aftermath. The story line is incredibly insightful as Thomas Moran paints a gloomy Europe still reeling from the devastation of WW II. Walter and Anja answer the Edwin Starr question of "War, what is good for?" as both have paid with their souls to endure the fight and remain compensating the piper as neither can trust anyone nor give their love to anybody including their spouse. This is a strong late 1940s drama that rips asunder the other psychological costs of war.Harriet Klausner