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Wherever there is life, there are lies.
Slick-suited politicians lie on the podium, ready to tell voters what they want to hear. Cheating lovers, swindling businessmen, double-crossing villains - all liars. But nature lies too - the cheetah crouching in the tall grass waiting to pounce, its spots and straw-coloured fur blending in with its surroundings, the chameleon with its adaptable skin, the octopus hiding in its cave.
Juan Jacinto Muñoz-Rengel uncovers the slippery history of lies, some dark and elusive, others thunderous and dazzling. From primeval forests to modern politics, he explores the uncomfortable truths of our white lies, fudged facts and blatant deceptions. For centuries, philosophers, writers and poets have grappled with the paradox of what's fact and what's fiction. So who can we really believe? Our friends? Our partners? Our leaders? Can we even trust ourselves?
Truly, this is the only book in which the abundance of lies on its pages is a sign of success. Or maybe it isn't. Who can really tell?
List of contents
Acknowledgements
One
Minus Six
An Even Earlier Time: Nature
Two
Reality as Simulacrum
The First Big Lie
Magical and Mythical Thinking
God the Deceiver
The Lies of the Church
The Lies of Atheism
The Formation of Societies
Espionage and Counterespionage
Political Lies
Business and Economics
A Brief History of Forgery
Art as Fabrication
Literature as Fabrication
The Masters of Scepticism
The Lies of Science
The Present, Hyperreality and Post-Truth
Love
Death
So, What Is There?
Bibliography
About the author
Juan Jacinto Muñoz-Rengel is a Spanish writer. Born in Malaga in 1974, he is the author of El gran imaginador (The Great Imaginator), El asesino hipocondríaco (The Hypochondriac Hitman) and El sueño del otro (The Other's Dream) and he has received more than 50 national and international awards for his short stories.
Summary
Wherever there is life, there are lies.
Slick-suited politicians lie on the podium, ready to tell voters what they want to hear. Cheating lovers, swindling businessmen, double-crossing villains - all liars. But nature lies too - the cheetah crouching in the tall grass waiting to pounce, its spots and straw-coloured fur blending in with its surroundings, the chameleon with its adaptable skin, the octopus hiding in its cave.
Juan Jacinto Muñoz-Rengel uncovers the slippery history of lies, some dark and elusive, others thunderous and dazzling. From primeval forests to modern politics, he explores the uncomfortable truths of our white lies, fudged facts and blatant deceptions. For centuries, philosophers, writers and poets have grappled with the paradox of what's fact and what's fiction. So who can we really believe? Our friends? Our partners? Our leaders? Can we even trust ourselves?
Truly, this is the only book in which the abundance of lies on its pages is a sign of success. Or maybe it isn't. Who can really tell?
Report
"What is lying, how does it work, where does it come from, and why is it an integral and perhaps necessary part of human life? In A History of Lying, Juan Jacinto Muñoz-Rengel takes us on a dazzling journey through all different kinds of deception and falsehood, from their probable evolutionary origins to fake news in the modern day, carefully observing their effects on social life, family and love, politics, literature and art. An addictive, erudite essay that reads like a work of fiction."
Jorge Volpi
"He has the potential to become one of the most important writers of his generation."
Irene Andres-Suárez, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland
"My candidate for the book of the year."
Pablo Bujalance, Grupo Joly
"I was dazzled and exhilarated by this playful philosophical tour-de-force"
Sydney Morning Herald
"revelatory: we lie, yes, but often we do it to help each other. Muñoz-Rengel convincingly shows us that falseness 'is the clearest sign of intelligence', and should be appreciated as a tool for enabling people to understand reality."
New Statesman
"provoking, entertaining and surprising [...] a frothy, glittering meditation on the nature of human being"
Antonella Gambotto-Burke, The Australian
"[Munoz-Rengel's] fierce allegiance to the idea that the origins of lying reside in any detachment from reality brings to mind the idea of not lying as an active pursuit, which takes the form of a constant sifting through the details of life, and a simultaneous attempt to articulate them as clearly as possible--something akin to producing art."
The New Yorker
