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The Liar

Martin A. Hansen

Translated from the Danish by John Jeppson Egglishaw
With an Introduction by Eric Christiansen

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A Sun & Moon title.

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The Liar is one of Danish novelist Martin A. Hansen's best-known and popular fictions. Published in 1950, the story, which takes place shortly after World War II, is told in the first person and concerns the inhabitants of a tiny island in the Danish archipelago. In this absorbing psychological work, the author probes deeply into the mind of Johannes Vig, the local schoolmaster, a lonely figure whose relationship with his fellow islanders is gradually revealed in the diary on which he retrospectively comments. The story lays bare not only his self-doubts, but his belief in the goodness of man, both of which become increasingly more complex and contradictory as the story unfolds.

Born in 1909, Hansen was brought up in a rural community south of Copenhagen. His early novels are closely observed studies of farming life, but with the rise of World War II and his participation in the Resistance movement, he began to write works that more clearly represented the dystopian world of his time. He is generally regarded as one of the major Danish authors of the twentieth century. He died in 1955.