Libraries will again have to decide how to handle a nonfiction title that has turned out to be fiction. Misha Defonseca has admitted that her story of escaping the Nazis during World War II and living with wolves was a fabrication. Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years has been translated into eighteen languages and made into a film in France. The New York Times has the story.
It is hard to believe that it has already been two years since the A Million Little Pieces controversy. At that time I argued for keeping the item in nonfiction because moving it would require us to start weighing the veracity of many other nonfiction books, some of which I named. I think I would still stick with that position. What do you think?
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Keep it nonfiction, would be my opinion; particularly when it takes on a new nonfiction topic, namely, the controversy of authors fabricating stories. I've always thought we were a little rigid in our approach to nonfiction labeling, personally. Let's face it. It is impossible most of the time to know the real, actual truth. If you start getting that picky, most memoirs and a lot of political nonfiction, particularly titles in which authors repeat lies they've been told by politicians, would have to be labeled fiction too.
This is good information to know about this title, by the way. Thanks. I can't believe this coming out is going to make the author very popular in the future.
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