The Nature of Truth

This convention-challenging suspense novel represents the next wave of Latino literature. Instead of the stereotypical story of poverty in the barrios or discrimination in a hostile world, Troncoso explores 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 Yale scholar Werner Hopfgartner. By chance Sanchez discovers a letter written in the 1950s by Hopfgartner mocking feelings of guilt over the Holocaust. Appalled, Helmut digs into the scholar's life in a quest for the truth, and finally uncovers evidence of Hopfgartner's sordid past. Sure of his conclusions, Helmut decides that only one shocking act is morally correct. Afterward, the consequences of Helmut's decision 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 is wrongly left to pay for it.

Intelligent and literate, The Nature of Truth breaks new ground in Latino literature. The novel focuses 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.