First published 2010
Laurie Sandell worships her charismatic father, a man who spins incredible stories about his wealthy Buenos Aires upbringing, his Vietnam War heroics, and his personal connections to Henry Kissinger and the Pope. These tales shape Laurie's own identity as she experiments with extreme personas, from Tokyo stripper to lesbian seductress to Ambien addict. Eventually she lands her dream job interviewing celebrities for a major women's magazine. Her unusual childhood proves useful when connecting with famous personalities. When Laurie decides to write an article about her father's remarkable life, she begins fact-checking his stories. What she uncovers shocks her completely. Her father is a fraud. None of his tales are true. Laurie must now reconstruct thirty years of deception and understand how living with a pathological liar shaped her fractured sense of self.
Genres: literary-fiction, autobiography, memoir, biography-memoir, deception, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Vietnam
Period: 1980s, 2000s
272 pages · Paperback · Little, Brown Paperbacks
Content warnings: mental-illness