In a move that will please many, many people, Bloomsbury has announced that they will trash the original US cover.
“We regret that our original creative direction for Liar—which was intended to symbolically reflect the narrator’s complex psychological makeup—has been interpreted by some as a calculated decision to mask the character’s ethnicity,” Bloomsbury officials said in a statement to PW. “In response to this concern, and in support of the author’s vision for the novel, Bloomsbury has decided to re-jacket the hardcover edition with a new look in time for its publication in October. It is our hope that the important discussions about race and its representation in teen literature continue. As the publisher of Liar, we also hope that nothing further distracts from the quality of the author’s nuanced and accomplished story, and that a new cover will allow this novel’s many advocates to celebrate its U.S. publication without reservation.”
The old cover:
And the new:
I'm very happy for the new cover. And it's really pretty, even if I'm partial to just Australian cover - I dislike faces & people on book covers most of the time.
Posted by: liz | 07 August 2009 at 11:33 AM
Not sure how the old cover was supposed to "reflect the narrator’s complex psychological makeup" but I'm glad they've corrected their mistake.
Posted by: Annie | 07 August 2009 at 12:47 PM
"Symbolic" my foot. At least they changed it.
Posted by: beth | 07 August 2009 at 01:31 PM
Oodalolly!
Wow ... it's like ... how our government is supposed to work. The people speak! The Powers That Be respond!
Posted by: Noel | 07 August 2009 at 03:42 PM
SO glad about this.
(PS: Added you to the WORD link list. Yay.)
Posted by: Nicole | 08 August 2009 at 03:40 PM
Good.
Posted by: Gina | 08 August 2009 at 04:04 PM
Oh, good! I'm glad that they changed it, after causing such a hullaballoo.
Posted by: Aarti | 10 August 2009 at 03:47 PM