The "Angel at the Fence, The True Story of a Love that Survived" by 79 year old Herman Rosenblat is like a number of other book frauds promoted by Oprah Winfrey. It is the latest in a list of memoirs in which the author has been accused of fabrication and could put greater pressure on publishers to fact check books more carefully. In 2006, U.S. author James Frey admitted he had fabricated key parts of his drug and alcohol memoir "A Million Little Pieces," the top selling non-fiction book in the United States in 2005.
In February 2008, Misha Defonseca admitted most of her bestselling autobiography, which told of a young Jewish girl saved by wolves while hiding from the Nazis in wartime Europe, was made up.
Also in 2008 was "Love and Consequences," a memoir by a Margaret B. Jones about a mixed-raced girl growing up in a gang-ridden neighborhood of Los Angeles, and supposedly a participant and perpetrator of violence was revealed to be a fabrication.
I suppose this is the down-side of promoting reading - you get a few duds. But what does it do to the craft (when editors do not even bother to check basic facts - even though it is being portrayed as non-fiction - it would be fine otherwise) and memory of those who died?
