Sergio Troncoso's The Nature of Truth is a campus crime novel whose characters uncover past transgressions, engage in discrimination and harassment, and rationalize brutality to themselves. After a professor of German literature is murdered, his former lover recalls their first meeting:

"Our paths truly crossed at the Heidegger symposium. These lectures are so exciting. You hear people from all around the world. I asked a question, I've read some Heidegger. but I don't know that much. This claptrap about being-in-the-world makes me dizzy. But I thought the speaker was being too hard on Heidegger. The fellow struck me as an arrogant dolt. He was French. Need I say more? I asked him why he was connecting Heidegger's connection with Nazism to his political philosophy. I'd just been to Amadeus--wasn't that F. Murray Abraham fantastic?--and in my mind, the point of it was that despicable people often create wonderful things. Why should we attack the great music or literature or theory of a worm because he was a worm? I didn't put it quite like that. But the French professor answered with a flourish I didn't understand. Werner Hopfgartner asked the next question and, like a bulldog, wouldn't let the French bastard waltz free! Werner was terrific! Much more sophisticated and precise than I was. It was a wonder to watch him press Mr. Europa with points about 'the nature of philosophical truth' and its flying free of its originator to stand on its own. It was truly exciting. They went at it for a while, quoting arguments and philosophers as if they were flinging arrows at each other."

  ¶ 9:44 PM