Beyond the Book: Background information when reading Beautiful Lies

Beyond the Book

This article relates to Beautiful Lies

Lisa Unger says that for a long time she didn't believe it was possible to make a living as a writer, "mainly because that's what people always told me", so she went into the profession that brought her closest to her dream - publishing.  A few years later she met her future husband in Key West  and after a whirlwind romance they sold their homes, quit their corporate jobs and moved to Florida. She says that only once she had some distance from New York, could she start appreciating the city and it naturally became the setting for Beautiful Lies.  

When asked what elements of the story come from her own experience she answers, "For me and for most fiction writers, I think, it is true to say that everything and nothing in my work is autobiographical. As much as the plot, the events, and the characters are purely from my imagination, of course all of these things are an amalgamation of my experiences, relationships, observations, literary influences, etc.

When asked specifically whether Ridley is like her in any way she says,  "a good deal of her observations are similar to my own … her reflections on life, love, sex and what defines a family are things with which I might agree if the questions were posed to me."

Beautiful Lies is Unger's first novel. Her next novel, Sliver of Lies, also featuring Ridley Jones, will be published in January 2007.

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This "beyond the book article" relates to Beautiful Lies. It originally ran in June 2006 and has been updated for the December 2006 paperback edition. Go to magazine.