Rebecca is a liar. She listens to the stories of other people's lives and makes them her own, no matter how unlikely they may be. When a stranger arrives, claiming to be Adam, her ex-boyfriend, Rebecca's world of make-believe is turned inside out. Not only is the stranger quite clearly not Adam but Rebecca learns that the real Adam had killed himself several months earlier.

Enter Paige, a charismatic lesbian, who offers to help Rebecca solve the mystery. But Paige herself appears not always to be whom she claims.

This is a book where the various aspects of living a lie are explored on many levels.

I'm talking about a kind of surrender … a giving over of yourself to someone else to such a degree, and with such absolute trust, so nakedly, that nothing in you is left unanswered. Now, I think I can only find that with a woman."

The most obvious is Rebecca's constant invention and reinvention of her history. Her struggle to stop the storytelling and accept herself for who she is, and how painful she finds it to be truthful about her past, make her an endearing character. When she discovers the joy of lesbian love she embraces it with a mixture of physical acceptance and verbal denial.

Then there's "Adam", who most certainly is not who he claims to be. His menacing presence is waiting at each turn of the page. Where Rebecca told ever-changing lies simply to make herself more interesting to other people, "Adam" is living his lie and, as we learn at the end, has lived more than one.

Paige's story is more familiar. She married a man she loved dearly, thinking she could live a normal life. The passages where she explains to Rebecca her initial confusion over, and ultimate acceptance of, her lesbianism are utterly believable and beautifully written. But she, too, has her deceptions.

This novel is totally engrossing. I found myself urging Rebecca to hold on to her own, newly found and immensely likeable personality. Like her, I was drawn by Paige's magnetism and really cared about their burgeoning relationship. And what was the truth about "Adam"? You'll have to read the book to find out.

"The Ropemaker's Daughter" is Virginia Smith's first published novel and I for one am eagerly awaiting her next.