A true story based on a false story

Late one night in February 2018, the award-winning Irish journalist Olaf Tyaransen returned home to find his name trending on Twitter.

To his horror, he discovered that Brooke Magnanti - controversial author of the Belle de Jour books - had published an article accusing him of physically and sexually assaulting another woman a few years earlier.

Tyaransen had never met Magnanti, and the woman in question had recently died in tragic circumstances. While the allegation was completely untrue, it was already going viral. Hundreds of people were rushing to judgement and sharing Magnanti's article.

In a painfully honest and compelling memoir, Tyaransen details the emotional, social and professional impact of that false accusation.

His lacerating, unflinching account highlights the importance of due process, the mindless cruelty of crowds and the potentially fatal consequences of online vigilantism.