Available Formats
Paperback
Published: 10th November 2015
Paperback
Published: 31st May 2005
Paperback
Published: 14th October 2025
The Liars' Club
By (Author) Mary Karr
Pan Macmillan
Picador
14th October 2025
10th July 2025
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Memoirs
811.54
Paperback
352
Width 131mm, Height 197mm, Spine 22mm
242g
'You'll want to forget it and won't be able to' - Zadie Smith 'The essential American story' - The Washington Post My father comes into focus for me on a Liars' Club afternoon. He sits at a wobbly card table weighed down by a bottle. Even now the scene seems so real to me that I can't but write it in the present tense. Mary Karr grew up in a swampy East Texas refinery town in a volatile and defiantly loving family. In this funny, devastating, haunting memoir and with a raw and often painful honesty, she looks back at life with a painter mother, seven times married, whose outlaw spirit could tip over into psychosis, and a hard-drinking, fist-swinging father who liked nothing better than to spin tales with his cronies at the Liars' Club. When it was published in 1995, The Liars' Club raised the art of memoir to a new level and brought about a dramatic revival of the form. It is a classic that paints a harsh world redeemed by Karr's warmth, intelligent humour and finely spun prose. The Liars' Club is both heart-stopping and heart-felt. 'Extraordinary' - The Guardian 'Exceptionally powerful' - The Observer 'Utterly gripping' - The Sunday Times Part of the Picador Collection, a new series showcasing the best of modern literature.
You'll want to forget it and won't be able to. * Zadie Smith *
The essential American story * The Washington Post *
Harrowing but funny . . . Through it all shines humour, warmth and genuine love. * The Sunday Times *
Extraordinary * The Guardian *
Astonishing . . . One of the most dazzling and moving memoirs to come along in years. * The New York Times *
Exceptionally powerful * The Observer *
Breathtakingly shrewd and loving * The Independent *
Utterly Gripping -- Margaret Forster, The Sunday Times
A poet and essayist, Mary Karr lives in New York State.