The Nature of Truth

by Sergio Troncoso

Published 7 May 2003
This convention-challenging suspense novel represents the next wave of Latino literature, eschewing the stereotypical story of poverty in the barrios or discrimination to explore the differences - and links - between righteousness and evil in the search for moral truth. Helmut Sanchez is a young researcher in the employ of the renowned scholar Werner Hopfgartner. By chance Sanchez discovers a letter written in the 1950s by Hopfgartner mocking feelings of guilt over the Holocaust. Appalled, he digs into the scholar's life, determined to find the truth and finally uncovering the evidence of Hopfgartner's shocking past. Sure of his conciusions, Helmut decides that only one extreme act is morally correct. When he acts, the consequences are immense, and the toll taken on his mind and conscience is amplified when one of his friends is wrongly accused of the crime - and as wrongly left to pay for it.
Intelligent and literate, The Nature of Truth breaks new ground in Latino literature, focusing on how a contemporary man of unique heritage - a Mexican-German who has come to America by way of Germany - navigates a complex moral universe and how his journey reflects the tension between justice and righteousness in American life.