Michael Palin--yes, the Monty Python Michael Palin--returns to fiction with The Truth, his first novel since 1994's Hemingway's Chair.
Once an idealistic and award-winning journalist, Keith Mabbut now finds himself writing histories about (and for) oil companies to pay his bills, sweeping the uncomfortable bits under the rug in the process. He's estranged from his son, a wannabe actor, and his daughter has fallen for an Iranian refugee. The almost-ex-wife he believed would never finalize their divorce is now inviting him to meet her new gentleman friend, who is rich, handsome and, indignity of indignities, actually a decent fellow. In an attempt to make a fresh start, Mabbut decides to try his hand at novel writing, but before he can fully commit to his dawn of man/interstellar visitor storyline--"It's not science fiction, it's historical re-creation"--his agent approaches him with a deal that sounds too good to be true: six figures to write a biography of an environmental activist.
The catch? Hamish Melville, the activist in question, leads a life of fanatical privacy, eluding every attempt to chronicle his story. Mabbut ultimately finds the project too enticing to pass up, and embarks on a journey into some of India's most beautiful and environmentally embattled areas. At first mistrusted and even bullied by Melville, who believes him a spy, Mabbut slowly comes to appreciate Melville's passion for protecting the lives and traditions of the villagers in rural India, threatened by the prospect of strip mining in their sacred hills. But even if Mabbut does get the story of a lifetime, what exactly is his publishers' motive for commissioning it? More importantly, is Melville the ultimate hero--or the ultimate lie?
Palin's ample experience in travel writing shows in his descriptions of Indian landscape and culture as well as his portrayal of the misty Shetland Islands. Secrets within secrets lurk around every corner in this sharp, wistfully funny journey from a man's cynical exterior to his inner idealist. As Mabbut learns, people are rarely who and what they seem, but the truth is as much a point of view as it is a collection of facts. With brain-twisting plot riddles and the occasional slick quip, Palin is at his most entertaining even as he invites readers to consider the falsehoods we use to cover our deepest selves and the power--for better or worse--of simply letting others see us for who we are. Although The Truth touches on many serious aspects of corporate politics and inner turmoil, Palin manages to leave readers with hope and a smile. --Jaclyn Fulwood
Shelf Talker: A once-decorated journalist turned corporate sellout gets a chance to redeem himself when he's asked to write the biography of an elusive environmental activist.