Rated 3 stars *** 2014. Arte Publico Press. 261 pp. (First published in 2003 by Northwestern University Press).
What is truth? Can truth hide in little lies, which build upon one another until people finally believe the lie to be the truth? Is this lie the truth, or is the truth the lie of having people believe the lie to be true?
These questions and more haunt Helmut Sanchez, assistant to German professor Werner Hopfgartner at Yale. Upon discovering a massive secret about Professor Hopfgartner from over 40 years ago, Helmut is forced to analyze whether or not to keep the truths he found out a secret, despite knowing the Professor is living a lie.
Helmut decides his discovery of this long ago truth about Hopfgartner cannot survive if the Professor’s version of truth lives, so begins to fashion an elaborate plan to kill the lie so that the truth might live. Unbeknownst to him killing the truth will cause lies to grow bigger than ever, leaving his dark quest for the truth to absorb him to the point that he is in danger of losing his own mind as well as everything he knows and loves.
“The Nature of Truth” leads readers on a suspenseful path to discover whether or not the truth Helmut believes to be more important than a lie can live out its life as a lie, or if his version of the truth is really the lie. The psychological debate of right and wrong raised by Troncoso in “The Nature of Truth” will live on after its final pages are read.
Recommended for Adult readers.
You Decide: Should I Read it or Not? 