Liar’s Dice

• Author: Juliet Faithfull
• Genre: Historical Fiction
• Publication Date: April 28, 2026
• Publisher: Random House

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A heart-rending and hopeful debut about a teenage girl in 1970s Brazil who is unexpectedly torn away from her disabled twin sister—and who must learn what it means to fight for those we love when all the odds are stacked against us.

Everyone knows, but no one talks.

Identical twins Dolores and Mita grow up in lockstep in rural Brazil, speaking their own secret language, dancing together, inseparable even when they sleep. But at age seven, they discover that Mita has a degenerative condition—and Dolores does not. On the cusp of adolescence, Mita’s illness becomes debilitating, and without telling Dolores, their parents send Mita across the Atlantic Ocean to a hospital in their father’s native London.

The rest of the family moves to Rio and begins to live a bourgeouis lifestyle, but Dolores is miserable there. She misses her small-town and most especially her twin, who her parents seem to have forgot ever existed. And she has no way to contact Mita—particularly since, at twelve years old, Dolores still cannot read or write. She is desperate to speak to her again—and desperately alone and unhappy at her posh new school. But everything begins to change when she meets a brave, headstrong girl from the favelas who shows Dolores a new side of Rio, and how to survive it. 

Tensions are on the rise with the dictatorial government cracking down on protesters and dissenters. Both at home and in the country at large, there are cover-ups at play—and Dolores pushes to find the truth about right and wrong, her lost sister and her place in life. In a setting where repression and silencing were part of everyday life, Liar’s Dice is about the secrets we hold, both personal and political, and the consequences of keeping them. Atmospheric and intimate, Juliet Faithfull’s coming of age novel captures the intensity of forming your own identity, and the courage and love required to forge a different life.

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing someone speak in fluent Portuguese, you might understand why this is one of my favorite languages to listen to. I was really excited to read this book, but I was way past the release date when I read it. To catch up, I managed to get an audiobook version and I was able to hear the beautiful language spoken by narrator Gisela Chípe as I read along.

Brazil is a country that I don’t know much about, but this book really transports readers to Santanesia and Rio, the two places where Dolores and her identical twin spend most of their young lives.. The locations are depicted so beautifully and vividly, it almost felt like I was right there with Dolores.

The author makes a bold choice in voicing the story through the eyes of a 12 year old girl who is both naïve and sheltered yet also street smart. Faithfull’s decision pays off, and it actually does sound like it is being narrated by a pre-teen girl. Growing up in 1970s Brazil was a bit different than growing up now, and they were exposed to a lot more than they are now. 

Dolores is a fantastic character—this is a coming of age novel, while also exploring the powerful bond between identical twins. She’s a good kid, but has some struggles, and her life is full of people as messy as she is in both good and bad ways. She goes through an incredible amount of growth over the course of the story, and it was so poignant to me in the way Mita is always in Dolores’s thoughts, no matter how long they’ve been separated. Despite not being in many of the chapters, Mita’s personality was given space to shine, mainly due to Dolores encouraging and assisting her.

Throughout the book, it’s clear that Dolores is dealing with some very heavy topics. Her early years in Santanesia make it clear that this is in the rural, interior of the country. Life in Santanesia was full of fun, dancing with her twin, and felt suffused with joy. But as the twins hit age 7, everything changes; Mita has a seizure and it’s a really bad one, and the doctor in the village isn’t able to help them enough. Her father is British and her mother is Brazilian, and his employment eventually transfers him to Rio de Janeiro.

Dolores does a great job of viewing the massive differences within the city of Rio—the glamorous side that attracts tourists to the beaches of Ipanema; the favelas of the poorest residents; the nicer neighborhood that she lives in; and the seedier side where sex workers ply their trade. She might be young but she isn’t blind to the very adult issues her family is experiencing as Mita starts experiencing terrifying symptoms—seizures that seem to last forever, and a reduction in coordination. The family eventually moves to Rio to help Mita gets the care she needs, but her worsening symptoms lead to her being diagnosed with cerebral palsy and epilepsy, and eventually she is sent to a hospital in England, without Dolores learning about it until after.

Understandably, Dolores is bereft without her twin and with no way to contact her. Growing up in a small village means that she was taught what her mother knew, and both of them are illiterate. Forced to attend a British school, Dolores faces bullying for more than a few reasons, but mainly because her classmates discover that she can’t read or write. There is one teacher who sees the potential in Dolores and tries to connect with her and tutor her privately, opening a door to a whole new world of reading and writing.

The story is a little on the slow-paced side, and it provides plenty of room for the major growth that Dolores experiences. She struggles with grief, fear, isolation, frustration, and anger at various points in the story, and as Mita’s neurological disease progresses, Dolores is initially afraid that it will also be what she experiences herself, and then experiences survivor’s guilt over her being healthy while her twin becomes sicker to the point of needing institutionalization. Themes of how people with disabilities are treated, the idea of institutionalization, and the effects a severe disease can have on a family. While there has been an ongoing movement towards de-institutionalization in the US since the 1980s, treatments and care homes weren’t always compassionate, empathetic, and genuinely caring. 

An outcast at the British school she attends, Dolores finally is befriended by a nice, friendly, supportive friend. However, her friend doesn’t come from a background that her parents would approve of, so Dolores just doesn’t tell them. She reaches a point where she sees the adults always lying to her, so she doesn’t plan to keep being honest with them. I couldn’t help but empathize with her and how she is trying so hard to manage her feelings without having developed the appropriate coping skills. 

Overall, I was really impressed with this book. The genuine feel of a 12 year old narrator as she navigates growing up and managing the change from life in small village to the busy and potentially dangerous streets of Rio. I loved all the Portuguese that is used throughout the novel, and Chípe was a joy to listen to, especially since there is a glossary at the back of the book (both e-book and audiobook versions). The vivid setting depictions made it so easy to visualize them in my head, while the characters are barely described at all, aside from a few characters noted as having very dark complexions while others are lighter-skinned. I would have liked to be able to picture the characters as easily as the locations. This was a fantastic read, and I found it to be one of the most enjoyable books I’ve read in a while. But the thing that I was most happy to see was the unconditional acceptance Dolores has towards Mita, even as her neurological symptoms progress to the point where she requires braces on her feet to a wheelchair, to living in an institutional setting. No matter what Mita’s struggles are, Dolores is her assistant, motivator, and personal cheerleader, even when others in their life don’t view things the same. It opens the door to how people with disabilities are treated, in their small inner circle of family and loved ones, and rippling out to anyone that has contacted with a disabled person, which isn’t always the way that society at large views people with disabilities. 

Bottom line: A beautiful and touching tribute to the bond between twins as one of them navigates Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, while facing bullying and fighting her own illiteracy as she strives to reconnect with her twin.

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