When something is maybe not quite true

Three books I have enjoyed recently and which will most likely be amongst my best books of the year.

Fiction - The Artist is set in Provence in 1920 and tells the story of an artist and his niece. Although set in a believable place and time, it is pure fiction. 

Historical Fiction - Mother Naked is set in the City of Durham in 1434 and is a story told by a minstrel to the most powerful men of the city. It evokes a particular period of history but is definitely fiction. 

Non-Fiction - The Story of a Heart relates the story of a heart transplant. A true story in every detail - non-fiction.

So what if a work of non-fiction, ‘an honest and life-affirming true story’ turns out to be not quite true - if it is partly fiction.

For some reason I have always been a little suspicious of The Salt Path. I don’t know why, maybe I read or heard something about it, but I just felt there was something not quite right about the book even though I had never read it. Unusual for me, I didn’t buy the book, even though it was in every bookshop I went to. I never read it, even though everyone seemed to be reading it and it was being selected for prize lists. I saw the film but only because it got good reviews and it was set in a part of the country I was getting to know. 

And today The Observer carries this story.


In a world of false news given out to mislead, do we know what truth is any more? And does it matter if a story pretends to be true and maybe isn’t - if it’s a good story?