Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • The Lie Tree

  • Costa Book of the Year 2015
  • By: Frances Hardinge
  • Narrated by: Emilia Fox
  • Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (1,047 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Lie Tree cover art

The Lie Tree

By: Frances Hardinge
Narrated by: Emilia Fox
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Monkey's Paw cover art
Fly by Night cover art
All the Murmuring Bones cover art
The Path of Thorns cover art
Ruritanian Rogues: Volumes 1-3 cover art
Live Free or Tri cover art
Stormrise cover art
Sunshine Walkingstick Omnibus One cover art
Lady Jayne Disappears cover art
Evernight cover art
The Hangman's Daughter cover art
Augmented cover art
Poison cover art
Past Caring cover art
Pengelly's Daughter cover art
Wilderness and Other Stories cover art

Summary

Perfectly complemented by Emilia Fox's elegant narrative style, this story twists and turns its way through Victorian England and the stifling societal conventions of the time, all the way to its thrilling climax.

Winner of the Costa Book of the Year 2015

The Lie Tree is a wonderfully evocative and atmospheric story by Frances Hardinge, award-winning author of Cuckoo Song and Fly by Night.

Faith's father has been found dead under mysterious circumstances, and as she is searching through his belongings for clues she discovers a strange tree. The tree grows healthy and bears fruit only if you whisper a lie to it. The fruit of the tree, when eaten, will deliver a hidden truth to the person who consumes it. The bigger the lie, the more people who believe it, the bigger the truth that is uncovered.

The girl realizes that she is good at lying and that the tree might hold the key to her father's murder, so she begins to spread untruths far and wide across her small island community. But as her tales spiral out of control, she discovers that where lies seduce, truths shatter....

©2016 Frances Hardinge (P)2016 Macmillan Digital Audio

What listeners say about The Lie Tree

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    537
  • 4 Stars
    329
  • 3 Stars
    127
  • 2 Stars
    37
  • 1 Stars
    17
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    654
  • 4 Stars
    217
  • 3 Stars
    67
  • 2 Stars
    15
  • 1 Stars
    11
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    485
  • 4 Stars
    291
  • 3 Stars
    117
  • 2 Stars
    48
  • 1 Stars
    20

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

It grows next to the Tedium Bush…

You know that feeling you get when you click on a link on the internet and then you get the dreaded circle of death going interminably round and round and round …… Well this is the feeling I got when listening to this story. I had a strong sense that there was a good idea amongst all the ponderous detail but getting to it felt like trying to pluck a prawn from a lobster shell. Faith is a young repressed Victorian woman investigating the death of her secretive clergyman/naturalist father. Was it murder or was it suicide? To be honest I didn’t really care. He was such a monumentally horrible man, that if I were Faith I would find it hard to wipe the grin off my face after hearing of his demise.

For the most part Emilia Fox read this ludicrous tale with reasonable enthusiasm, but why on earth did she give little Howard such a horrible ickle cutesy wootsy voice? My teeth still hurt thinking about it and I will fastidiously avoid books containing children in the immediate future.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

98 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting concept, let down by patchy execution

The basic concept of a Lie Tree was OK, but the writing was lazy and repetitive (people kept doing things 'reflexively' and, if they were holding on, you can bet it would be 'for grim death') and the sexism of the time was conveyed with all the subtlety of a rhino trying to tap dance. Shame the editor didn't do a better job of pruning back the overkill and sharpening up the writing.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

58 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good story, mediocre writing, annoying reader

What did you like best about The Lie Tree? What did you like least?

Most: The idea of a tree that feeds on lies and reveals truth is quite interesting but I had to listen through something like 10 hours of boring dross before our protagonist has anything to do with the lie tree at all.

Least: Since the name of the wind, I've felt starved for a scintillating story and beautiful writing. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the lie tree is neither of these things. There were some similes I found so irritating that I almost sent it back, E.G. something something 'unfolded like flowers... or knives'..... neither of these things unfold. Also, I feel that 'apocalyptic thoroughness' when applied to a tough conversation with one's dad is ham-fisted to say the least.

I really don't get why it won an award, but then I guess the award was from Costa Coffee. Perhaps this is the lie and there's a tree somewhere growing a nice juicy grape.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

The writing just leaves me with questions. Beyond one fond childhood memory of fossil hunting on the beach, why does this girl love her father so much? The two things she's quite certain of are that she's clever and she likes fossils, so why doesn't she hate her father who believes she's just a burdensome uneducated plonker because she's a girl?

How could the performance have been better?

Perhaps I'd have felt quite differently about this book had the narrator not sounded like she was performing the novel to a group of frightened children around a campfire in the middle of the night on Halloween.

Do you think The Lie Tree needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No. Please no.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

40 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Different but enjoyable

It had to happen - I am now taking recommendations from my 10 years old! She's also an avid Brandon Sanderson fan, so I trusted her and took a punt and downloaded the Lie Tree.

Not what I was expecting, but comfortably enjoyable. Although somewhat predictable, and it did take a while to get going, it's well written, and an unusual story in many respects. The storyline I found most enjoyable was not the Lie Tree plot, rather it was the references to women, and how they weren't really seen / visible in learned society back then. Naturally our heroine doesn't behave as she's expected to, and that's what makes her likable.

It has some dark moments, (but apparently not as dark as some of Frances Hardinge's other works - according to my daughter), but there's also a good moral victory in the end.

It made a change to my usual fare, so glad I listened to it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent , stick with it.

I find it quite hard to get into this book. Beautifully read, no issue there, just somehow I could not get engaged. But all the reviews plus the"costa" award convinced me to persevere and suddenly I was hooked and had difficulty getting on with my work rather than reading (listening) all day. Wonderful story and Faith is an inspiring character particularly for young female readers. Highly recommended

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

What a book !!!

Excellent from start to finish, a very well written story brilliantly read by Emilia Fox. This was the first Frances Hardinge book I have listened to, but now I'm definitely a fan and have already downloaded a couple of her other books to my kindle. A good read for any age.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

a dissappointment for me

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The set is way too long, it'sabout a hundred pages before anything happens to really drive the story. Unfortunately the characters aren't likable enough to justify this. Faith is a plucky ambitious young girl (as are all Hardinges heroines) but lacks her own identity, try Mosca Mye in Fly by night or Neverfell in A face like glass for two great characters.
I'm afraid I gave up on the audio halfway through and having read the last couple of chapters of the book im glad I did. I'm sorry as I love all of Frances Hardinges other books, they are literary and character driven, I just felt that this one seemed to want to describe everything in every detail,
I seem to be in a minority, and I would like to praise the author for incorporating big ideas into her books, in fact they are all about ideas, this one Evolution, Fly by Night religious (and other) tyranny, A face like glass, Identity, I think.

Has The Lie Tree put you off other books in this genre?

No i'll read all of Ms Hardinges books, they all have their own life.

Have you listened to any of Emilia Fox’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Yes and I cannot fault the performance she is an excellent narrator.

Could you see The Lie Tree being made into a movie or a TV series? Who would the stars be?

A two or three part drama would serve the story better than a movie I think.

Any additional comments?

I used to only write positive reviews before, but having bought a few duds that I wish I had been warned about I think an honest review is best good or bad. I don't think good books should be criticised while rubbish gets a free pass out of politeness.
Not saying that this book is bad it's just not for me. If others love it that's good.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Took a long time to warm up

I found the start of this book very dull and it was only the other reviews indicating it got better that I endured the first 13 chapters.
It did however get better after that and so in the round made it just about worth it angling in there. The second half has a different pace entirely.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Very slow

You didn't actually find out what the father had been accused of until 5 hours into the book, if you can persevere past that then it's an ok listen.

A family have moved to a new town under whispered rumours. What was it the father did wrong? Can the family survive it?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Stunning thriller full of twists and turns

I'd recommend this novel to anyone who likes a page-turning thriller with more than a touch of the supernatural! Terrific young heroine whose desire to follow her adored father into fossil hunting and natural science lead her through an incredible adventure. Loads of twists and turns - I'd never have guessed the ending - and all set in a slightly creepy very Victorian background.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful