Genre: Travel/Humor
Description:
Andrew Mozart is twenty years old, naïve, shy, financially
self-sufficient (thanks to a life insurance policy that paid out when his
father died) and in love with Sarah, a work colleague. When Sarah leaves for a
trip to South America before Andrew has declared his love, he elects to follow
her. The book recounts his journey.
Author:
Michael Delwiche is a screenwriter living in the UK. The Liar’s Guide to South America is his
first novel. He has a second novel (Wait
Until The Robots) due out later this year.
Appraisal:
After Sarah has left on her trip, Andrew checks her computer terminal
at work and finds her email program still open. He peeks at her inbox and her
sent folder and finds out where she is staying. Then he flies to Brazil to try
and meet her.
Such a simple premise, but what a great read.
I got through the story in three sittings—never wanted to put it down.
Andrew’s naive attempts at backpacking and staying in hostels and trying to fit
in among others far more travel savvy than himself makes for a fun journey. His
trip was built on a deception, and the longer he continues to track Sarah, the
more wrapped up he becomes in the web of lies he has to spin.
His travel decisions are based on what he believes he is understanding
from Sarah’s emails (which he continues to look at as he tries to track her
down) and as we know, emails don’t always mean what they appear to say. His
lack of even a modicum of travel-wisdom (this is his first time away from home)
has him making dumb decisions that lead him into one problem after another. But
no matter how unlikely the characters he meets and the situations he gets
himself into, it never seemed far-fetched to me, quite the opposite. At twenty,
I’d probably have done much the same — a scary thought!
Some sections of the book are laugh-out-loud funny, and no matter that
he’s a cheat and a liar, I defy you to not like Andrew—I found myself rooting
for him throughout.
This gem of a story is what self-publishing is all about. It’s well
written, well structured, clever, and wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in Hell
of being picked up by a mainstream publisher.
I recommend you read it and see how Andrew sets off to South America
to find Sarah, and, in the end, finds himself.
FYI:
English Spelling.
Added for
Reprise Review: The Liar's
Guide to South America by Michael Delwiche was a nominee in the Humor and
Satire category for B&P 2013 Readers' Choice Awards. Original review ran September
26, 2012
Rating:
***** Five Stars
Reviewed
by: Pete Barber
Approximate
word count: 60,000-65,000 words
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