Big Little Lies
Someone is dead at the trivia night. Moriarty works backwards to show you why. Every domestic surface hides something real.
Pirriwee Public School
Liane Moriarty's 2014 novel is set among the parents of a kindergarten class at a school in a beautiful Australian coastal suburb. Three women form the novel's centre: Madeline, fierce and funny; Celeste, beautiful and hiding something; and Jane, young and damaged and new to town. The framing device is a police investigation into a death at the school's trivia night, and the story moves backward to reveal what those perfect lives contained. A sharp, intelligent novel about class, domestic violence, and the complexity of female friendship. The HBO series with Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman won eight Emmy Awards.
Reading Big Little Lies
Surface
/
Part
"Oh, it's true, Madeline, darling. We're all just one tiny adjustment away from being the villain.
"Liane Moriarty · Big Little Lies
Moriarty wrote the novel while simultaneously raising two children and said the world of competitive kindergarten parenting felt to her like a perfect setting for murder. The satire comes from genuine observation.
The HBO adaptation changed the setting from Australia to Monterey, California and added a significant new storyline. It swept the Emmy and Golden Globe awards in 2017 and a second season followed in 2019.