Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Truth
    The Truth
    The Truth
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Truth

    Written by Michael Palin

    Narrated by Alex Jennings

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Keith Mabbut is at a crossroads in his life. A professional writer of some repute, he has reached the age of fifty-six with nothing resembling the success of his two great literary heroes, George Orwell and Albert Camus. When he is offered the opportunity of a lifetime-to write the biography of the elusive Hamish Melville, a widely respected and highly influential activist and humanitarian-he seizes the chance to write something meaningful. His search to find out the real story behind the legend takes Mabbut to the lush landscapes and environmental hotspots of India.

    The more he discovers about Melville, the more he admires him-and the more he connects with an idealist who wanted to make a difference. But is his quarry really who he claims to be? As Keith discovers, the truth can be whatever we make it.

    In this wonderful, heartwarming novel, Michael Palin turns his considerable skills to fiction in the story of an ordinary man on an extraordinary adventure.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateAug 13, 2013
    ISBN9781452686097
    The Truth
    Author

    Michael Palin

    MICHAEL PALIN is a comedian, novelist, actor, playwright, and founding member of Monty Python. He is the author of the novel Hemingway's Chair as well as several books on the history of Monty Python, including The Pythons, and numerous travel guides, including Brazil and Sahara.  He also happens to be one of the funniest people on the planet.  He lives in London, England.

    Related to The Truth

    Related audiobooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      'Maigret' Marks A Welcome Return From Rowan Atkinson

      Mar 6, 2018

      French police detective Jules Maigret ("commissioner" is his title, but not in the American "Commissioner Gordon" sense) is back on television in the surprising but ultimately persuasive person of Rowan Atkinson, better known to the world as Mr. Bean

      3 min read

    • Article

      Bill Buford’s Stint in Hell’s Kitchen

      Mar 11, 2020

      Fourteen years after the bestselling Heat, former New Yorker fiction editor Bill Buford is back with another culinary adventure. The post Bill Buford’s Stint in Hell’s Kitchen appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Joshua Ferris Writes a Work of Hope

      Aug 2, 2021

      This was always going to be about Joshua Ferris’s dad. “You catch me pretty fresh,” the author deadpans over Zoom. “I haven’t talked about it.” The “it” refers to his long-awaited new novel, A Calling for Charlie Barnes, which publishes in September.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Nick Tosches in a Trench Coat

      Oct 21, 2019

      Nick Tosches in a Trench Coat
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries 2003-2020

      Oct 20, 2021

      Little, Brown £20 Throughout his twenties and well into his thirties, David Sedaris was an embarrassment to his family. He was always on the move, dropping in and out of college and flirting with hard drugs, as he drifted from one odd job to the next

      3 min read

    • Article

      Delia Ephron

      Jan 8, 2022

      Your memoir chronicles your leukemia diagnosis in 2017, five years after losing your sister Nora to the same cancer. Throughout the book, you repeat this mantra: “You are not your sister.” Do you still find yourself saying that? I never said that to

      2 min read

    • Article

      Unreleased Orson Welles Film ‘The Other Side Of The Wind’ Arrives

      Nov 2, 2018

      For Welles aficionados, and perhaps only for them, “The Other Side of the Wind” will function as a skeleton key to the themes and obsessions of his entire career.

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Blue Mind

      Sep 10, 2018

      The Blue Mind
      4 min read

    • Article

      Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman Diaries Review – Great Actor, Keen Shopper, Sharp Wit

      Oct 16, 2022

      Alan Rickman’s voice was a purr, but it masked sharp claws. This was evident in the memorable baddies he played and now you can hear it in the feline prose of these selected diaries. “John Major said, ‘You have given us so much enjoyment.’ ‘I wish I

      3 min read

    • Article

      Move On Up !

      Jul 15, 2021

      Move On Up !
      10 min read

    • Article

      How to Eat a Really Big Lunch with Jim Harrison

      Mar 24, 2017

      In November of 2003, less than a month before his 66th birthday, the poet and writer Jim Harrison—who died last March at the age of 79—left his farmhouse in Montana’s Paradise Valley and drove some 25 miles through the state’s aspen and fir woodlands

      10 min read

    • Article

      Ten Must-Read Crime Books Set in the American West

      Dec 27, 2019

      This list of must-read crime titles forms part of a lesser-known West, an awesomely weird landscape in which the line between Good and Evil shimmers like a mirage. The post Ten Must-Read Crime Books Set in the American West appeared first on The Mill

      4 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Hamya, Wolitzer, and More

      Aug 31, 2021

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Jo Hamya, Hilma Wolitzer, and more—that are publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Hamya, Wolitzer, and More appeared first on The Millions.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems by Charles Baudelaire

      Jun 9, 2020

      After my friend and I left the tobacco shop, he carefully sorted his loose change; slipped some small gold coins in his left jacket pocket; into the right went the silver pieces; in his left pants pocket, a handful of centimes; and in the right, a si

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Truth

    3.5/5

    57 ratings8 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Pageturner! A well written and interesting story. Enjoy!
    • 5/5
      An excellent read - very thought provoking and gives insight into how the large corporations operate in the modern world; also about how fallible we humans can be - even those we admire the most. Cracks along at a fast pace too.
    • 4/5
      Well-written and tightly-paced, with a nice kicker at the end.
    • 3/5
      Michael Palin has written another good book with hints that he has a great one in him someday. Just like Hemingway's Chair the Truth starts as a slow read, but once you get into it it is tough to put down. Hopefully he won't wait so long for the next one.
    • 5/5
      Extremely enjoyable novel and a fast read. I like Palin’s style: a touch of understatement and black humour, whilst at the same time creating suspense and pace. I also liked, even admired, his final twist in the plot. Storyline in three parts: (1) exploring and describing the life of failed environmental journalist turned corporate success stories writer, quite comically starting at his farewell reception of a mega oil company in the Shetlands; (2) being coaxed into writing a biographical story on Hamish Melville, a environmental activist and hero, Keith Mabbut (Budmash?) rediscovers his environmental journalist idealism and tricks during a trip to India, where he gets picked up by his hero, is kidnapped by Naxalites, released again by Melville, joins him in a fight against a mega aluminium smelter’s plans to explore bauxite in some remote hills destroying the livelihoods of some ethnic groups. After finishing the book, the publisher refuses to accept the heroic, one sided biography, wishing to insert some nastiness of its own fabrication; (3) and that is the start of the most accomplished and final part of the novel, when nothing proves to be what it seemed, and the only one sticking to some kind of unmitigated type of truth is Mabbut himself. The latter culminates through his ultimate refusal to smear the name of Melville, egged on by some (correct) hints by Melville that the publishing house is actually owned by one the worst companies that he is ‘fighting’ in the Amazone (an agro-industrial, responsible for 2-3% of the chopping of the Amazone forest in Brazil). End of story: Budmash happy for refusing to get his book published, his daughter duped by a conman Iranian refugee, his wife happy with her new husband Rex, the Westminster puppet master, who has helped Budmash on several occasions, and Keith scores a 'blue nose' when trying to seal what was a budding love affair in the Shetlands (too late, the lady in question is already taken by the loud mouthed Scottish manager of the Oil terminal). And then the twist: the Illegitimate daughter of Hamish in the Czech republic running a beauty clinic provides him with a ticket and hotel reservation. Once there Keith meets his hero, Melville, in a bed, bandaged and in a bad state. Hamish has a confession to make: all is not what it seemed – Hamish has been playing both sides, often succumbing for the highest bidder. But the game has changed with the Russian and Chinese entering the scene. The latter are unscrupulous and fight opponents through contract killers and hired thugs, who killed three of Hamish companions. Hamish came out unscathed, but deeply shaken: he wants to opt out. So he is getting a new face in his daughter’s clinic and he asks Keith to write his life story, the truth and all. Two months later Hamish Melville gets ‘killed’ in a mysterious accident in Argentina. Keith publishes his book with the help of 120,000 pounds that Hamish left him, and the book is a block buster (8.5 million copies sold).
    • 5/5
      This is a book about dignity and compromise. The sufferings of the hapless central character are quite Pyhonesque to begin with but this is gradually shed as the story reveals the grounding of self-identity. The book is broken up into three distinct acts. In the latter two, one gets the impression that Palin is writing about all the gritty stuff that he could never quite get into his travelogues. It feels as if he has really experienced some of the environmental stuff and that makes it all the more concerning to read about. The satirical style is reminiscent of Evelyn Waugh. The book is ultimately hopeful and genuinely heartwarming.
    • 4/5
      The book started out very slow and flat, I didn't enjoy part one very much at all. However it really picked up with parts two and three, once Mabbut travels to India.

      Although very well written, the first part of the story is about feeling stuck, disillusioned and discouraged, which I have experienced enough in my own life that I didn't need eighty pages to describe it for me. It wasn't really the kind of story that pulls you along in the beginning, but something you have to push through reading to get to the good parts.

      The book really comes to life after that though. The descriptions of India and the people Mabbut meets are exceptional. This quote from Melville, the famed environmentalist that Mabbut is attempting to write a book about, really resonated with me. "Look, Kumar is a Masira. His family came from the hills. They used to chop wood and walk ten Ks to sell it for charcoal. They'd never seen a white man till the missionaries arrived. He was brought up at the bottom of the food chain. Well, tell me, you've spent time with him, is there anything you can do that he can't? Given the right opportunities, those who want can achieve anything." I was very much enamored with the story at this point.

      Overall, I very much enjoyed this book. It explored several themes including hero worship, environmentalism, corporate power, greed, progress versus tradition, integrity, and of course 'the truth' in an entertaining way. I appreciate that I obtained an advance reading copy from a goodreads giveaway.
    • 4/5
      I decided to give this novel a try on the basis of always having enjoyed Michael Palin's travel shows on television, and I was not disappointed. There is a certain similarity of style, a sense of British understatement and politeness that, in Palin's case, just hides a sharp awareness of what is actually going on. The protagonist is a middle-aged journalist who has lost his environmental campaigning mojo and sold out to corporate PR in writing a history of the Sullom Voe oil terminal in Shetland. This goes along with the collapse of his marriage. His agent comes up with a proposal from an unlikely publisher for him to write a biography of a leading, but elusive, campaigner for the rights of indigenous people faced with environmental destruction at the hands of industrial corporations. The bulk of the novel concerns the writing of this book, but has various fascinating twists and turns, as well as giving voice to these particular environmental issues. The style is pleasantly straightforward and unpretentious, and all in all I found the novel enjoyable and satisfying.