What Is A Lie?

Dear Evan Hansen by Val Emmich, Steven Levenson, Ben J. Pasek, and Justin Paul

It's the first day of Evan Hansen's senior year of high school. He's a bit of a nobody, has anxiety issues, and sees a therapist. He's starting out the year with a cast on his arm because he fell from a tree and broke it. He has a crush on a girl named Zoe, whose brother is a social outcast. Evan has a couple of encounters with Zoe's brother, Connor, that day, and Connor signs Evan's cast.

A couple of days later, Evan discovers that Connor has killed himself, and his parents believe that Connor wrote his suicide note to Evan. As it turns out, the letter in question was written by Evan himself, as an exercise assigned by his therapist. Since Connor's parents are convinced that the letter was written by Connor, Evan thinks the best thing he can do for these grieving parents is to play along.

Over the course of several weeks, Evan lives this lie. He has created memories of himself and Connor to convince everyone of their friendship. He fakes emails. He has dinner with Connor's family, and he feels more comfortable with them than his own mother. To some degree, Evan feels guilty lying to everyone, so it makes you wonder how long this charade will last.

I can see why this is a popular theatre production, as the story was definitely worth reading.