A True Story Based on Lies is a remarkable and original novel that addresses the universal issues of class discrimination, male oppression, and female servitude through dual narratives of spellbinding power. Set in contemporary Mexico, the book charts the consequences of a sexual relationship between Leonora, a servant in the wealthy O'Connor home, and her master. When a child, Aura Olivia, is born from this union she is brought up as the daughter of the house. As the novel unfolds, the "true" story gradually emerges.
Jennifer Clement studied English Literature and Anthropology at New York University and also studied French literature in Paris, France. She is currently the President of PEN Mexico.
Clement is the author of the memoir Widow Basquiat that made the "Booksellers' Choice" list in the United Kingdom and two novels: A True Story Based on Lies, which was a finalist in the Orange Prize for Fiction in the United Kingdom, and The Poison That Fascinates. She is also the author of several books of poetry: The Next Stranger (with an introduction by W.S. Merwin), Newton's Sailor, Lady of the Broom and Jennifer Clement: New and Selected Poems. Her prize-winning story A Salamander-Child has been published as an art book with work by the Mexican painter Gustavo Monroy. Clement's work has been translated into 10 languages.
Jennifer Clement won the Canongate Prize for her story A Salamander-Child. In 2007 she received a MacDowell Fellowship and the MacDowell Colony named her the Robert and Stephanie Olmsted Fellow for 2007-08. In 2009 she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was named the Thornton Writer-in-Residence at Lynchburg College, USA.
Clement was awarded Mexico's prestigious "Sistema Nacional de Creadores" grant and in 2001 and she is also the recipient of a US-Mexico Fund for Culture (FONCA, Fundacion Cultural Bancomer, the Rockefeller Foundation) grant for the San Miguel Poetry Week, which she founded in 1997 with her sister, Barbara Sibley.
Clement's work has appeared in numerous anthologies including The Best of The American Voice and Akzente, The London Times, The Herald, Poetry London, The Nation, The American Poetry Review, National Geographic, The Warwick Review and The Independent Magazine, among others, have published her stories, poems and essays. Recently, the composer Jan Gilbert created an "Eleven Song Setting" of Clement's The Lady of the Broom for soprano, flute, viola, and violoncello.
Jennifer Clement lives in Mexico City, Mexico.
