Can we believe what the newspapers tell us? Missing links in 'Alias Grace.'

Margaret Atwood relied on imagination to retell the story of Grace Marks, a servant who was found guilty of murdering her master and his housekeeper in Canada in 1843, in her novel 'Alias Grace.' Her explanation is much more comprehensive and more palatable than other versions of the sensational case because she can not only use available information but also invent narratives, a license allowed fiction writers. Nevertheless, this does not mean that newspaper accounts of the affair are not reliable. They merely reflect the customs and attitudes of the time.