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    The False Friend: A Novel
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    The False Friend: A Novel
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    The False Friend: A Novel
    Audiobook6 hours

    The False Friend: A Novel

    Published by Penguin Random House Audio

    3/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    From the bestselling author of Bee Season comes an astonishingly complex psychological drama with a simple setup: two  eleven-year-old girls, best friends and fierce rivals, go into the woods. Only one comes out . . .

    Leaders of a mercurial clique of girls, Celia and Djuna reigned mercilessly over their three followers. One after­noon, they decided to walk home along a forbidden road. Djuna disappeared, and for twenty years Celia blocked out how it happened.

    The lie Celia told to conceal her misdeed became the accepted truth: everyone assumed Djuna had been abducted, though neither she nor her abductor was ever found. Celia's unconscious avoidance of this has meant that while she and her longtime boyfriend, Huck, are professionally successful, they've been unable to move forward, their relationship falling into a rut that threatens to bury them both.

    Celia returns to her hometown to confess the truth, but her family and childhood friends don't believe her. Huck wants to be supportive, but his love can't blind him to all that contra­dicts Celia's version of the past.

    Celia's desperate search to understand what happened to Djuna has powerful consequences. A deeply resonant and emotionally charged story, The False Friend explores the adults that children become-leading us to question the truths that we accept or reject, as well as the lies to which we succumb.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateOct 5, 2010
    ISBN9780307751294
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for The False Friend

    3/5

    157 ratings31 reviews

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    • 1/5
      This book fell very flat for me. I found myself skimming it, looking for pages of action or of interest. It's a shame, because the premise was intriguing to me, and I really wanted to know what had happened that day when Djuna disappeared. Perhaps it was a case of reading-the-wrong-book-at-the-wrong-time? I will pass this copy along to someone else who may get more out of it.
    • 3/5
      Celia's childhood best friend went missing two decades ago, something Celia has tried her hardest to accept and move on from. But suddenly, she starts remembering what truly happened that day so many years ago. The only problem is, no one believes her-and she's beginning to wonder if she can trust her own mind.This is such a great concept. I love books centered around secrets from the past, the questioning of the reliability of memories, and the examination of the stories we tell ourselves and others.While I am okay with ambiguous or open-ended endings when they serve a purpose, this just felt unfinished. The last page feels tacked on and almost renders meaningless everything that came before.It was also hard to connect with any of the characters, especially the main characters. Despite Goldberg's attempt to highlight how our present selves might not even recognize (or admit to) who were as children, her characters felt somewhat one-dimensional and stuck in place.Also, just as a warning for readers, there are some very descriptive paragraphs of childhood bullying that can be very difficult to read. These are actually where Goldberg's writing really comes alive, as she makes these scenes painfully vivid and heartrendingly real.I had such high hopes for this book, but I just didn't love it. It was good enough to hold my interest and keep me flipping pages, but I think that was from holding out hope that the fascinating concept would come to fruition. In the end, I just felt unsatisfied.
    • 3/5
      Tedious narrator.
    • 5/5
      Myla Goldberg's writing is intelligent and compelling. I continually find myself caught up in her prose, unique phrases like "the arboreal endgame of their neighborhood's demise" or "the hollow ear of the empty house". I admire how she can take the most ordinary object and turn it into imagery and emotion. This is the 3rd novel of Goldberg's I've read, and I can hardly wait for her next.
    • 2/5
      2.5
      This was a relatively short book and a somewhat quick read. The story had a lot of promise, but the ending was very disappointing and I kept wondered where was the resolution= what happened to Celia and Huck? The story kept me intrigued until the end which soured me on the book a little. I also found the overall dialogue between the characters somewhat unrealistic. The entire time, I kept wondering what 32 year old woman still constantly refers to her mother as "mommy".
    • 4/5
      A kind, wise book about very painful things.
    • 2/5
      Read it for upcoming book club. I don't care for the way the author writes and she did a poor job of creating characters. Easy read, but no purpose to it!
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this strange novel.... I didn't care for Celie at all, but I thought her character seemed very real.
    • 3/5
      Didn't love it, but I did find the story compelling--a story of a woman coming to terms with the bully she was as a child and how the terrible thing that happened as a result shaped her adult life.

      Maybe I was just excited to read (listen to) a book aimed at grown-ups for a change.
    • 4/5
      I first learned about the slipperiness of childhood memories when I was 14, and returned to visit the house I had grown up in until the age of 8. I was absolutely convinced that there were two apple trees in the backyard. When I closed my eyes I could see them, and see myself playing under them. But when I walked out the back door, there was just one apple tree. How could that possibly be? I mean, I could see that other tree!Myla Goldberg's latest novel, The False Friend, deftly explores the chasm between childhood memory and reality. After a long absence through her adulthood, Celia returns to her small hometown to finally confess what really happened to her 10-year-old self's best friend: Djuna fell into a hole in the woods, but Celia lied and said she had gotten into a car with a stranger. Celia is shocked when no one — not a single person — believes her adult version of that childhood memory. The reader follows along as Celia revisits people from her past, including the other three girls who were part of her friendship circle. She discovers that each person she talks to remembers a different Celia, by turns sweet, selfish and bullying. Can reality and memory ever come together to form truth?I enjoyed Goldberg's previous novel, Bee Season, very much, and in many ways I enjoyed The False Friend just as much. Her characters are deftly drawn and she portrays the complicated relationships between people very effectively. The ending was a slight letdown, but overall The False Friend rang true to me.
    • 4/5
      Celia, a woman in her early thirties who has found her personal life at a stalwart, recovers a memory from her childhood in which she believes she left her best friend, Djuna, for dead in the woods and concocted the story of a kidnapping as cover up. She returns to her childhood home to confess and make amends to all affected; her parents, Djuna'a mother, and Josie, Leanne and Becky, the three childhood friends who were with her directly before and after the incident. Throughout her visit, Celia begins to recall additional, long-supressed memories of her intense and unhealthy friendship with Djuna and the cruelty they inflicted daily on other children. These revelations may ultimately allow her to move on with her life and come to terms with what really happened the day Djuna disappeared.The writing style of Myla Goldberg is unique, giving the sense that one is being told personal secrets as a prelude to the discovery of a vast iceburg hidden beneath the surface. Upon finishing the novel, I felt as if I was missing the last piece to a complicated puzzle, but upon further reflection realized the piece was there, I just had to chose whether or not to fit it into place.This will be an excellent choice for bookclubs, as Goldberg leaves much of the plot open for interpretation which is sure to generate good discussion.
    • 3/5
      I wouldn't recommend this book. I found the writing quite clumsy in places. The ending was not clear and certainly not satifying, and the characters were not particularly likeable or intriguing.
    • 3/5
      (Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)I was a huge fan of Myla Goldberg's deceptively creepy The Bee Season when it first came out several years ago, so I've been looking forward to checking out her latest, which boasts an equally fascinating premise -- that twenty years after reporting her childhood friend abducted while playing in the woods one day, a genial thirtysomething nerd has a flash of what might be repressed memories where she seems to realize that she actually murdered the girl during a passionate impromptu fight, a hazy event that she has come back to her hometown to either confirm or deny through mental confrontation. But while the ending definitely delivers a low-impact but emotionally satisfying conclusion, there is almost nothing of note in the 250 pages between, making this a great short story but a lousy novel, and especially when adding Goldberg's decision to fill the second act with endless bland childhood anecdotes and what's perhaps the most conflict-free parental relationship in the history of contemporary literature. Well-written but mostly a waste of time, it comes only slightly recommended today, with me encouraging you to instead just read The Bee Season if you never have before.Out of 10: 7.2
    • 4/5
      I thought this was an interesting book. At first I didn't understand how it ended but then realized it actually did make sense and left a lot to think about.
    • 3/5
      I don't know if it is a good or bad thing that I read this in a few hours. I like Goldberg's style. If you want a decent, quick read then pick this one up.
    • 4/5
      The False Friend was a rather disturbing read. As a young girl, Celia had one good friend then a new girl enters the picture, Djuna and takes over as the new best friend. Djuna has many disturbing ideas that she likes to act upon. She convinces Celia to play a very cruel game with a girl named Leanne who would love to be included in their circle of friendship. Djuna decides that she will control the situation by bullying and degrading Leanne and never allowing her to measure up.One day, the girls head off down a road that they were told not to walk upon. It is dangerous and is surrounded by woods. Djuna runs ahead of Celia and Celia pursues her. According to Celia's memory,Djuna falls into a hole never to be seen again. Celia tells everyone that Djuna went into a strangers car. But which story is true. As an adult this incident has come to haunt Celia so she returns home at age 31 to try and convince everyone that what she remembers is what really happened.I was not pleased with the ending of this complicated story. At times, it was hard to follow and even harder to believe. I had hoped for some kind of conclusion but to my mind there isn't one.
    • 2/5
      Very interesting premise, but it went no where. Boring and pointless.
    • 3/5
      I am writing my review based on an ARC copy of this book. I enjoyed the story of Celie's childhood and her friends. I feel like a lot of people act just like her, but don't see themselves the way others do. I found it very realistic. The part about Celie's present as an adult was so boring it almost put me to sleep. I am glad that the author did explain what happened at the end and didn't leave us hanging like so many books do. Not awful, but I won't read it again.
    • 4/5
      I was enjoying this book up until the last chapter. Even after sleeping on it and re-reading that last one, I'm still not sure I quite understand why the author ended the story there, and I'm not sure that final paragraph was necessary. But it's a good story, with all the nuances of parent/child relationships and how those change over the years, and how current relationships go through ups and downs. The real action happened twenty years in the past so the reader sees only the implications of those events, but because everyone remembers those days differently than the main character, the reader is still wondering what exactly happened and is carried on that journey along with Celia as she tries to uncover the truth.One quibble about the dating: The characters talk about being eleven in 1986 and it now being twenty-one years later. So they are 32 now and the year is apparently 2007. Why not adjust everything so it's 2010 and they're all 36, or have them be eleven in 1989 and 32 in 2010? It only bothered me because I was also eleven in 1986, and I'm certainly not 32 now. Definitely a minor quibble but one that my mind picked up on right away.
    • 2/5
       Odd book. It had a strange pace. The climax was believable, but needed more foreshadowing. Usually it's the other way around.
    • 2/5
      This is one of those books that starts off with a strong, simple premise that sucks you in... and then fizzles off and leaves you wondering "is that it?"The premise: Two little girls who are both fierce friends and intense rivals go into the woods, but only one comes out. Twenty years later, Celia (the main character) travels to her hometown to confess the truth of that afternoon and purge the guilt and anxiety that has kept her from moving forward in life for so many years. Apparently her friend was presumed abducted, but Celia knows what really happened...Except -- and I'm going to admit spoilers here -- that we don't actually get any sense of resolution from this plot. You'd assume some soul searching, interviews with past friends, Celia's struggle to convince people of the truth, and eventually, acceptance of the truth + dealing with the consequences = everyone moves on.But after Celia's struggle to convince people of the truth, we have... nothing. In fact, the novel ends in such a way that it seems like Celia admits she's remembered everything incorrectly for several decades and this whole venture was a waste of time after all.What? So you mean there wasn't a point to this entire journey? I'm sorry, but I don't want to spend several hours with a character doing soul searching for truth, only to find out that there was no point and maybe she just had a false memory in her head the whole time. Or even that if her memories are correct (which it's never implied that they are), there's no way of resolving things satisfactorily, so we might as well all turn around an go home.Waste. Of. Time.Good writing, yes. Pointless story? You bet.
    • 2/5
      I was very disappointed by this book. I loved Myla Goldberg'sBee Season, and was looking forward to her new book. I did not like any of the characters, which made it difficult to care about what happened to them. The central mystery presented is never solved and you never discover whose memory holds the truth. I often found the author tripping over her own prose,i.e. the "clever" way the author was expressing her ideas drew attention to itself and pulled me out of the story.
    • 4/5
      Very reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's " Cat's Eye" in that the main character was quite a young mean girl.Celia lives in Chicago with boyrfriend Huck. She returns to her childhood home outside of Syracuse to confront a childhood trauma, that of her best friend Djuana disappearing.Well told and well written by the always wonderful Myla Goldberg. Excellent character development.
    • 3/5
      I was a little bothered by the ending it seemed to just hang there. But otherwise I really liked this book. I liked the idea which is what drew me to it. The beginning and most of the book was very enjoyable and moved along quickly.
    • 4/5
      This short novel tickles the mind from the first page to the last. A childhood event impacts the lives of five young girlfriends and is investigated through the eyes of one of them, Celia.Trauma affects all of us differently. The way in which these fifth-grade girls react to and deal with a common tragedy, is explored two decades later as Celia tries to deal with her idea of the truth about the day that her best friend Djuna, (one of the five) disappears forever. Each of the characters has a different memory of the event. Celia, as she revisits her past, has to come to terms with the child she was and it is not the child she remembers. “Was she mean”, she asks her brother, at one point. All of their memories seem to depend on how they handled the tragedy and, among other things, their interrelationships and the cruelties they inflicted upon each other.Leeann, one of the childhood friends, is a perfect example of the trompe l’oeil the book illuminates for us as to how we look at and interpret what we see. Is anything really what we think it is? They all witnessed the same event but each saw and remembered something different.Shame, guilt, abuse, lies, secrets and bullying have different consequences for each of the girls. Each views the event and their childhood differently, looking backward. One wonders at times, did the friends really know each other. Their relationships often felt shallow and undeveloped, cruel and too competitive. In so many instances, the inability of the characters to see what is really happening, then and now, shapes their lives.Many topics for discussion come up, i.e.: friendship, bullying, family abuse, the inability to communicate feelings properly, dysfunctional relationships and an inability to deal with circumstances beyond our control, are just some. As these are brought to the light of day, it is left to the reader to draw his/her own conclusions about the day of the disappearance. We never really learn whose interpretation of the event is accurate. Is Celia able to put her guilt to rest by confronting her idea of what happened? We are left wondering about what really did happen on that fateful day. We are wondering about the choices the girls made in adulthood. Each of us has to draw our own conclusion, in the end, for nothing is what it seems to be on the surface. Everyone is wearing some kind of a mask to hide behind and we have to discover who they really are and we are left to fill in the blanks, guessing. This book will make you think.
    • 4/5
      Several little girls walk along a forbidden road, two of them leading the way. One child never returns. Twenty years later, one of those girls, Celia, sights a VW bug and is flooded with memories, with the lie she told, and decides it is time to make amends. If only she can get someone to believe her.Although I first thought I was going to be reading a mystery and while a mystery is part of the story, it is secondary. This book is really about friendship, family, relationships. It is also about how mean children can be, perhaps not even recognizing that meanness, especially when they want to belong, want to be part of the favored group. It is about how all of us create our own reality, whether or not that matches the reality others believe.The writing was often lyrical, occasionally a bit too flowery, but I enjoyed it. Somewhat typical is“Huck was convinced of the redemptive powers of sibling communication, a faith consecrated inside the silent cathedral of the only child.” Huh? I liked that style, but recognize that not everyone will. I also liked how the author does not feel compelled to force conclusions on the reader but lets each of us draw our own. This was especially apparent in one of the later chapters about former friend Lee.While this book will not be everyone's cup of tea, I thought it was a sweet, contemplative look at friendship and family.The quote was taken from an Advanced Reader's Copy, provided to me by the publisher for purposes of review, and may be different in the published edition.
    • 4/5
      Myla Goldberg's The False Friend is about a woman who goes home to confront a childhood tragedy and to come to terms with the role she played in it. In the process, she learns a great deal about herself. It is clear that the language that Goldgerg uses throughout the book was deliberate and carefully thought out. Sometimes the descriptions are beautifully written and at other times the prose is forced and a little pretentious. The plot, however, is completely engaging. I liked the ambiguous quality of Celia's memories and am not sure I was ready for the abrupt clarity of the final page.
    • 4/5
      The False Friend by Myla Goldberg isn't so much a story as to what happened to eleven-year-old Djuna Pearson when she never came back from that fateful day when she and 4 other eleven-year-old girls walked the twisted dangerous road to the woods, as it is a journey of self discovery as Celia Durst retraces those steps 20 years later after a flashback sends her running back to her hometown to find the truth. The truth about what happened to Djuna, but also the truth about Celia & Djuna two best friends who were cruel, bullies and what long term consequences their cruelty had on themselves and the other girls in their clique...The False Friend opens with Celia walking to work, and something she sees jars a long forgotten memory. It's 21 years before, and she's just meeting Djuna in fifth grade. Djuna will become the friend that will replace all others. But her other friends, Josie, Leanne and Becky will make up part of the circle that surrounds her. As she remembers Djuna, loving & hating her, she remembers a lie. A lie that may have had dire consequences for Djuna in the woods that day... Little girls are passionate, especially when it comes to friendships. They can be cruel, love, hate, and can be your BFF at a moments notice. Myla Goldberg captures those feeling perfectly in The False Friend. That is what really makes you turn the pages of The False Friend- Celia's introspective look at her childhood relationships. The dynamics of these 5 girls is so interesting. And the intensity of the friendship between Celia and Djuna reverberates off the page. As Celia tracks down those 3 childhood friends from twenty years ago, not only is she surprised at what she learns, but you will be too. I really enjoyed The False Friend. Myla Goldberg's writing was compelling and slowly drew me in. The relationships she portrayed, from the friendships between the girls to the relationships between the parents and the girls was so authentic. And I think that all these parts of the story, all these relationships, added the richness to the story that kept me reading well into the night... A realistic portrayal of bullying, and an interesting reflection on what we perceive of ourselves growing up.
    • 4/5
      "The False Friend" by Myla Goldberg is a novel about friendships, trauma and memory and how we can be betrayed by all three. The main character is a young, professional woman named Celia who goes back home to disclose her truth about what happened to her best friend, Djuna, in junior high. The writing was pretty good, but it seemed the novel lacked some depth. I did enjoy reading the book, but was a bit disappointed by the ending. Not my favorite book of all time, but I have read much worse. If you are in the mood for a light read with a fairly interesting story, then you might like this book.
    • 5/5
      What is a friend? What does a friend look like and act like? How do we judge whether we are a true friend or not? What do we look for in a friend? These are questions we ask ourself from the time we first enter school.After reading the summary of this book I knew I wanted to read it. The False Friend is the story of a young woman,Celia, who believes she is responsible for the disappearance of her childhood friend Djuna. She is remembering her childhood friendships and she doesn't like what she sees. She is convinced that after having a terrible argument with her best friend Djuna that she watched her run into the woods and fall into a hole. She also believes she left her there. She returns to her home town to find out if she was this terrible person. The only way to do this is to confess to her parents and her friends. The problems is no one believes her. They all believe that Djuna got into a car with a stranger and was never seen again. Who is right? Is it possible that things were so horrible that she has blocked out the truth? What is the truth?This story kept me reading from beginning to end. I could not put it down. As Celia confronts her friends she learns that she was not what many of us would call a good friend. Why do people hang around those who bully them or put them down? Celia describe several arguments she'd had with her friend Djuna. It made me recall a time in high school when another of my friends and I were after the friendship of another girl. She would take turns having us over. One day I was her best friend and the next the other girl was. We would argue to the point that teachers would step into the hallway. The difference was I was just shy enough and lacked enough self confidence that I would do just about anything for her friendship. Miss Goldberg has done an awesome job with her characters. She shows us the human side that is often lacking in a book. We see their flaws. We can identify with them. There is something here for everyone. This is one book that I will definitely recommend to all of my friends. I look forward to more work by this author.