The Truth and Other Lies
by Sascha Arango
I really enjoyed picking up a copy of The Truth and Other Lies because it’s a novel translated from German. Anyone who’s studied German knows the word order can be tricky, so I was really interested to see if the translation felt stilted. It didn’t! If I didn’t know, I’d have thought it was originally written in English.
Sascha Arango has a great talent, and I could tell right away that he’s written screenplays. The ends of his chapters often end in snappy dialogue, and I could imagine scenes in a movie cutting from scene to scene.
Now for the bad news, which is completely subjective. I didn’t like this book because it was too gruesome. I found myself skipping page after page of gruesome descriptions of violence and mangled or decomposed bodies. The main character is a psychopath, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake, and I didn’t find it very pleasant to read about him. He’s a celebrated author with a very good marriage who’s having an affair with his editor. In the first chapter, his editor tells him she’s pregnant, so naturally, I wanted to read more. As the story wore on, it was too disturbing and gruesome for my taste. Fans of grisly stories, you’ll love it. My fellow squeamish readers, beware.
Sascha Arango has a great talent, and I could tell right away that he’s written screenplays. The ends of his chapters often end in snappy dialogue, and I could imagine scenes in a movie cutting from scene to scene.
Now for the bad news, which is completely subjective. I didn’t like this book because it was too gruesome. I found myself skipping page after page of gruesome descriptions of violence and mangled or decomposed bodies. The main character is a psychopath, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake, and I didn’t find it very pleasant to read about him. He’s a celebrated author with a very good marriage who’s having an affair with his editor. In the first chapter, his editor tells him she’s pregnant, so naturally, I wanted to read more. As the story wore on, it was too disturbing and gruesome for my taste. Fans of grisly stories, you’ll love it. My fellow squeamish readers, beware.