A PACK OF LIES

From the author of a fine historical novel (A Little Lower Than the Angels, Whitbread Award, 1987), a delightfully imaginative exploration of MacLachlan's premise that ""facts and fictions are different truths."" When Ailsa brings MCC Berkshire home to be an assistant in her widowed mother's struggling antique shop, he seems at first to be more a liability than an asset--even though he eschews remuneration. But MCC proves to have an extraordinary gift: the appearance of the most casual customer--or even the man sent to disconnect the telephone for nonpayment--prompts him to tell an elaborate story tailored both to one of the objects in the shop and to the audience at hand. A dozen stories are thus generated: vigorous, full of dark ironies and dancing humor, splendid in their variety--and yet masterfully linked by the evolving portrait of the mysterious storyteller and his relationship with Ailsa and her mother. There's a touch of magic here--magic that is adroitly fashioned by the author from the magical quality of MCC's storytelling. A fascinating, multileveled book.