Anthony J Viola

All Lies Begin With Truth Anthony J Viola

Set in 2014-16, and in the fictional town of West York, KY, All Lies Begin with Truth dramatizes the complexities of natural gas extraction, its legalities and impact on a small town's economy, infrastructure, and surrounding environment. Split into three distinctive perspectives, the novel begins with Eris Carroll, the outsider, a young and energetic activist negotiating her place in a world where societal rules and cultural norms cater to and support patriarchy. Later, the perspective changes to Lionel Boone, whose past indifferences and mounting guilt over surviving a kettle bottom collapse taunts him daily. Lastly, the novel switches to Cass Taylor, a West York resident whose cultural role in life was predetermined before her birth and who struggles with the realities of being trapped in small town USA and within the confines of a patriarchal culture. Her somber, foreboding outlook on the town, her life, and the human spirit is often chilling as the realization becomes clear that as a civilized species, we are imprisoned, being all too dependent on energy and those corporations who provide it for us.