To Name the Bigger Lie
2023, Scribner, An Imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC
"In To Name the Bigger Lie, Sarah Viren 'has pulled off a magic trick of fantastic proportion' (The Washington Post), telling the story of an all-too-real investigation into her personal and professional life that she expands into a profound exploration of the nature of truth. The memoir begins as Viren is researching what she believes will be a book about her high school philosophy teacher, a charismatic instructor who taught her and her classmates to question everything—eventually, even the reality of historical atrocities. As she digs into the effects of his teachings, her life takes a turn into the fantastical when her wife, Marta, is notified that she’s being investigated for sexual misconduct at the university where they both teach.
To Name the Bigger Lie follows the investigation as it challenges everything Sarah thought she knew about truth, testimony, and the difference between the two. She knows the claims made against Marta must be lies, and as she attempts to uncover the identity of the person behind them and prove her wife’s innocence, she’s drawn back into the questions that her teacher inspired all those years ago: about the nature of truth, the value of skepticism, and the stakes we all have in getting the story right.
An incisive journey into honesty and betrayal, this memoir explores the powerful pull of dangerous conspiracy theories and the pliability of personal narratives in a world dominated by hoaxes and fakes." (from the Simon & Schuster website)
Sarah Viren
Sarah Viren is writer, journalist and translator. She’s the author of two books, Mine and To Name the Bigger Lie, and a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine. She’s been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Fulbright Student Grant, among other honors, and been a finalist for several book prizes, including twice a Lambda Literary Award. She teaches in the creative writing program at Arizona State University. (bio from author's website)