Liar's Face

Liar's Face is about two girls with no blood tie: when their parents remarry and form a new family, the two become sisters under one roof. One is strikingly beautiful and free-spirited; the other is quiet and dutiful, with her mind fixed on her studies. They are like day and night. Living together, they pass through suspicion and rivalry, and gradually come to rely on each other. In adulthood, both their fates and their temperaments shift: the once reckless one settles into a steady life and becomes a devoted wife and mother, while the once docile one turns wild and ungovernable, bent on getting away. Through this pair of sisters, Yi Shu portrays urban men and women as they maneuver between love, marriage, and family. In public they keep up appearances; in private each hides their own worries. This "liar's face," a mask that can be changed at any moment to deal with other people, becomes an unspoken survival skill. Only before the one who witnessed their youth will they take off the mask and show their true selves. With her signature crisp sentences and cool detachment, Yi Shu writes of people advancing and retreating through the ways of the world, and of the rare honesty behind the disguise.