For the first time since his much-beloved tale Hemingway's Chair was published in 1998, Michael Palin pens a new novel featuring the warm and witty story of an everyman, a tantalizing offer, a journey to India, and the search for the truth.
Keith Mabbut is at a crossroads in his life. A professional writer of some repute, he has reached the age of fifty-six with nothing resembling the success of his two great literary heroes, George Orwell and Albert Camus. When he is offered the opportunity of a lifetime-to write the biography of the elusive Hamish Melville, a widely respected and highly influential activist and humanitarian-he seizes the chance to write something meaningful. His search to find out the real story behind the legend takes Mabbut to the lush landscapes and environmental hotspots of India.
The more he discovers about Melville, the more he admires him-and the more he connects with an idealist who wanted to make a difference. But, is his quarry really who he claims to be? As Keith discovers, the truth can be whatever we make it.
In this wonderful, heartwarming novel, Michael Palin turns his considerable skills to fiction in the story of an ordinary man on an extraordinary adventure.
"With passion and flair, Palin (of Monty Python fame) details a journalist's quest to discover the truth about a reclusive environmental activist…. It's been a long time since Palin's first novel (Hemingway's Chair, 1998). The wait for this compelling book has been more than worth it."
Kirkus, starred review
"Palin's plotting is inspired, the writing is crisp, and the unexpected twists of the story are eye-opening and often hilarious. What starts as a book about a schlumpy hack writer looking to save himself turns into a layered, empathetic look at progress, hero worship and the slipperiness of truth and lies themselves."
Creative Loafing
"The Truth is an ingeniously plotted, beautifully written and hugely enjoyable book that raises tricky questions about the cost of progress, and even trickier ones about our need for heroes, the price of personal compromise, and what Palin calls 'the uncontroversial assumption that the truth is immutable.'"
