 Questions about the accuracy of his work existed prior to his death , and Chatwin had admitted to " counting up the lies " in In Patagonia , though he stated there were not many . While researching Chatwin 's life , Nicholas Shakespeare stated he found " few cases of mere invention " in In Patagonia . Mostly , these tended to be instances of embellishment , such as when Chatwin wrote of a nurse who loved the work of Osip Mandelstam - one of his favorite authors - when in fact she was a fan of Agatha Christie . When Michael Ignatieff asked Chatwin his opinion of what divided fact from fiction , he replied , " I don 't think there is [ a division ] . " 
