To Name the Bigger Lie: A Memoir in Two Stories

Viren (Mine) explores the nature of truth and lies. As a high school student, Viren was admitted to a magnet program where she took a class on the history of knowledge that opened her mind to philosophical concepts, but the charismatic teacher also used conspiracy theories such as Holocaust denial as a teaching method. Viren here reflects on the effects of engaging with conspiracy theories on her classmates and herself. Each person remembers their time in that class and with the instructor differently, which prompts the author to consider the nature of truth and reality. Years later, Viren’s wife Marta is falsely accused of sexual misconduct at the university where they both teach; later, Viren is offered a job at another educational institution, which prompts her to think more about the ways in which lies have impacted her life. This epistolary book is the result of that introspection and indicates how the author processed her thoughts and fears. She uses philosophy—particularly Plato’s allegory of the cave, which examines the link between one’s senses and the ways people gain knowledge—to interrogate these concepts.