I've always loved books about historical events in the past or even political ones in the present; you name it. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, The Kite Runner, Guantanamo Boy; they're brilliant. A Beautiful Lie is one of these books.

The book is set in India before its division in 1947, and the country's imminent collapsing is felt by everyone, everything. There are people who deny the division would ever be possible, there are those who fight for it, and there are those who know it is coming and that there is nothing anyone can do about it. One of these people is Bilal. Bilal's life was complicated enough before India began to tear itself apart, with his mother dead and father growing severely ill with cancer, so when he realises the end of the India his beloved father knew grows nearer, he embarks on a mission to hide the truth from him, knowing that it would break his father's heart.

This task proves difficult in the story. Although Bilal's father is bedridden there are visitors, relatives and friends who wish to visit him and would surely tell him the truth of India's political state. However, with the help of his friends, Bilal manages to be alerted when visitors are coming and rushes each time to come up with ever more complicated reasons for why they cannot see his father. The sheer childishness of Bilal and his group of friends is pleasurable to read and shows just how much a child can understand.

Nonetheless, the truth proves harder to hide when Bilal's brother wants to tell his father the truth and the visitors become more frequent and harder to control.

The story is a warm one with well-drawn characters, my favourite being Doctorji: the local town doctor who looks after Bilal's father and Bilal, in a sense, too. Mr Mukherjee, Bilal's teacher also is portrayed as a kind man and, although not important in the main plot, remains significant to the reader.

Furthermore, the relationship between Bilal and his father is heart-warming and their shared love of books and poetry sweet. Some of my favourite parts of the book are the ones in which Bilal describes his house and the towering pile of books acting as a partition between two 'rooms'.

There are also some very dramatic scenes towards the end of the book of riots and attacks on different religions and races. However, given the build-up of tension in the story of how neighbours in Bilal's town begin to turn on each other and how small things like stalls, businesses and friendships are divided in two, I wanted a more suspenseful ending, something that shocked and surprised me.

Nevertheless, you will find the ending most rewarding and endearing. On the whole, A Beautiful Lie is a tale that will be remembered, and the journey that Bilal has been on is one that won't easily be forgotten.

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