To Good To Be True

A few days ago, I finished reading a book called Songs for the Butcher's Daughter by Peter Manseau. This book was amazing. I'd even go as far as to say that it was one of the best books I have ever read. This book contains two stories that are deeply intertwined. One is the immigration story of a Yiddish poet, while the other is the story of his 21 year old American translator. I don't want to give anything away, so I won't go into anymore detail about the plot and characters.

So, I was lying in bed, reading the last few pages of the book, thinking to myself how amazing it was that this was a true story. It was unbelievable that such a story could be real. Then, after I finished, I went on to read the author Q&A at the back of the book. It was only as I noticed a question that said, "You are in the midst of completing a Ph.D. degree in religion. How do you have time to write fiction?" Fiction? What? I couldn't believe it. Sure that there must be some mistake, that the characters in the book really existed, I rushed to my laptop, threw open its lid and googled the name of the Yiddish poet in the book. To my dismay, all of my search results related to the book, and nothing else. As a last resort, I looked the name up on Wikipedia. Again, no mention. I guess that somethings are simply too good to be true.