Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Zadie Smith is one of those rare

writers today, where it always feels like a big deal when they've got a new book out. She got

super famous, in literary circles at least, for her book White Teeth, which was a critical hit

when it came out in 2000, and reviews gushed over how such a book

could come from such a young writer. You know, she was 24 at the time. And since then,

she's taken her time between releases. Her last book came out in 2016. Her new one, The Fraud,

is her first go at historical fiction, and it's about this guy who lies a lot and is only rewarded for his lies.

And she talked to NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about the lines she's drawing between liars from way back when to liars today.

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We're going to speak now with the author of a new book about a trial, a complete spectacle of a

trial, a nation riveted by the proceedings. At the center of the trial, the testimony of a man

who says one provably false thing after another.

And the more outrageously, obviously untrue the things the man says, the more his supporters surged to his defense.

The book is fiction, but based on real events in 19th century, England and Jamaica.

The title is The Fraud.

The author is Zadie Smith.

And when we reached her in London,

I asked why she was drawn to the saga of Sir Roger Titchbourne.

I think I've always been interested in contradictory figures like this.

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