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Casualties of Truth
From the author of Book of the Little Axe, nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the critically acclaimed 'Til the Well Runs Dry, a riveting literary novel with the sharp edges of a thriller about the abuses of history and the costs of revenge, set between Washington, D.C., and Johannesburg, South Africa
Prudence Wright seems to have it a loving husband, Davis; a spacious home in Washington, D.C.; and the former glories of a successful career at McKinsey, which now enables her to dedicate her days to her autistic son, Roland. When she and Davis head out for dinner with one of Davis’s new colleagues on a stormy summer evening filled with startling and unwelcome interruptions, Prudence has little reason to think that certain details of her history might arise sometime between cocktails and the appetizer course.
Yet when Davis’s colleague turns out to be Matshediso, a man from Prudence’s past, she is transported back to the formative months she spent as a law student in South Africa in 1996. As an intern at a Johannesburg law firm, Prudence attended sessions of the Truth and Reconciliation hearings that uncovered the many horrors and human rights abuses of the Apartheid state, and which fundamentally shaped her sense of righteousness and justice. Prudence experienced personal horrors in South Africa as well, long hidden and now at risk of coming to light. When Matshediso finally reveals the real reason behind his sudden reappearance, he will force Prudence to examine her most deeply held beliefs and to excavate inner reserves of resilience and strength.
Lauren Francis-Sharma’s previous two novels have established her as a deft chronicler of history and its intersections with flawed humans struggling to find peace in unjust circumstances. With keen insight and gripping tension, Casualties of Truth explosively mines questions of whether we are ever truly able to remove the stains of our past and how we may attempt to reconcile with unquestionable wrongs.
Prudence Wright seems to have it a loving husband, Davis; a spacious home in Washington, D.C.; and the former glories of a successful career at McKinsey, which now enables her to dedicate her days to her autistic son, Roland. When she and Davis head out for dinner with one of Davis’s new colleagues on a stormy summer evening filled with startling and unwelcome interruptions, Prudence has little reason to think that certain details of her history might arise sometime between cocktails and the appetizer course.
Yet when Davis’s colleague turns out to be Matshediso, a man from Prudence’s past, she is transported back to the formative months she spent as a law student in South Africa in 1996. As an intern at a Johannesburg law firm, Prudence attended sessions of the Truth and Reconciliation hearings that uncovered the many horrors and human rights abuses of the Apartheid state, and which fundamentally shaped her sense of righteousness and justice. Prudence experienced personal horrors in South Africa as well, long hidden and now at risk of coming to light. When Matshediso finally reveals the real reason behind his sudden reappearance, he will force Prudence to examine her most deeply held beliefs and to excavate inner reserves of resilience and strength.
Lauren Francis-Sharma’s previous two novels have established her as a deft chronicler of history and its intersections with flawed humans struggling to find peace in unjust circumstances. With keen insight and gripping tension, Casualties of Truth explosively mines questions of whether we are ever truly able to remove the stains of our past and how we may attempt to reconcile with unquestionable wrongs.
267 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 11, 2025
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6713 people want to read
About the author
Lauren Francis-Sharma
3 books315 followersLauren Francis-Sharma is the author of "'Til the Well Runs Dry" and "Book of the Little Axe," which will debut May 2020. She is the Assistant Director of Bread Loaf Writer's Conference, the proprietor of D.C. Writers Room, and a MacDowell Fellow. Lauren, a former corporate lawyer, is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan Law School.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 115 reviews
April 30, 2025
Thought provoking, harrowing, and un-put-downable
In Casualties of Truth we are taken to DC and Johannesburg in a dual timeline told from Prudence Wright’s perspective. Prudence Wright currently lives in Washington, DC with her husband Davis who is at the peak of his career, so much so, she can afford to be a stay at home mom for her autistic son, Roland. Once trained as a lawyer, Prudence decided to give it all up to be more present for her family. As they head out for dinner to meet Davis’ new team member, Prudence is unaware of how this encounter will transport her back to a time she wiped from her memory.
We are transported to 1996 in Johannesburg, South Africa where we meet a young Prudence who is doing an exchange as part of her law programme. She is attending the Truth and Reconciliation hearings, which uncovered the many horrors and human rights abuses of the Apartheid state. During her time in South Africa, Prudence experienced for herself the harrowing aftermath of Apartheid. Matshediso who was in South Africa for that experience, is also Davis’ new team member, and he is back to expose everything if Prudence doesn’t corporate.
A lot is happening in this book but it all seems to come together in the end. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves thrillers but more importantly, if you are curious about South Africa’s history and how Apartheid “ended” I remember being in South Africa and telling my host mother that I was heading to the Apartheid Museum and she told me she’s never been. I remember being aghast, “how as a Black South African you’ve never been?” I asked her, and she replied saying, “I lived through it” and proceed to talk about how harrowing the experience was. I was told that because of the Truth and Reconciliation agreement, people would be in the mall and see their abuser walking pass them. This book really brought to life all the feeling I had around Apartheid and the aftermath of the Truth and Reconciliation.
I loved how the author explored race and identity in this book and how that affected who Prudence and Matshediso viewed the world. The book being told through different timeline helped with the pacing and made me feel like I had to know what happened. As far as thrillers go, I did not see the ending coming.
A very unique read!
In Casualties of Truth we are taken to DC and Johannesburg in a dual timeline told from Prudence Wright’s perspective. Prudence Wright currently lives in Washington, DC with her husband Davis who is at the peak of his career, so much so, she can afford to be a stay at home mom for her autistic son, Roland. Once trained as a lawyer, Prudence decided to give it all up to be more present for her family. As they head out for dinner to meet Davis’ new team member, Prudence is unaware of how this encounter will transport her back to a time she wiped from her memory.
We are transported to 1996 in Johannesburg, South Africa where we meet a young Prudence who is doing an exchange as part of her law programme. She is attending the Truth and Reconciliation hearings, which uncovered the many horrors and human rights abuses of the Apartheid state. During her time in South Africa, Prudence experienced for herself the harrowing aftermath of Apartheid. Matshediso who was in South Africa for that experience, is also Davis’ new team member, and he is back to expose everything if Prudence doesn’t corporate.
A lot is happening in this book but it all seems to come together in the end. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves thrillers but more importantly, if you are curious about South Africa’s history and how Apartheid “ended” I remember being in South Africa and telling my host mother that I was heading to the Apartheid Museum and she told me she’s never been. I remember being aghast, “how as a Black South African you’ve never been?” I asked her, and she replied saying, “I lived through it” and proceed to talk about how harrowing the experience was. I was told that because of the Truth and Reconciliation agreement, people would be in the mall and see their abuser walking pass them. This book really brought to life all the feeling I had around Apartheid and the aftermath of the Truth and Reconciliation.
I loved how the author explored race and identity in this book and how that affected who Prudence and Matshediso viewed the world. The book being told through different timeline helped with the pacing and made me feel like I had to know what happened. As far as thrillers go, I did not see the ending coming.
A very unique read!
June 21, 2025
I came to this book because it dealt with a period in time in a part of the world that I am willfully ignorant of; that I don’t know or care enough about. I hoped to learn about South African Apartheid, and I did, but I also continued my learning on what it means to be a human under various conditions of stress, oppression, and abuse. It also deepened my knowledge of what it means to be Black in America and South Africa and even the loaded nature of that term itself.
What I didn’t expect was the page-turning thriller aspect of this book. The characters are unpredictable and the settings are chaotic. This led to a riveting reading experience and one I would recommend to thriller fans and folks interested in relatively recent Apartheid history.
This would have been 4.5 or 5 * but the ending did not sit well with me. I could literally feel the frustration in my body.
Read this book, folks. And you know what, it’s a 4.5*. I’m thinking back through the book and it’s damn good.
What I didn’t expect was the page-turning thriller aspect of this book. The characters are unpredictable and the settings are chaotic. This led to a riveting reading experience and one I would recommend to thriller fans and folks interested in relatively recent Apartheid history.
This would have been 4.5 or 5 * but the ending did not sit well with me. I could literally feel the frustration in my body.
Read this book, folks. And you know what, it’s a 4.5*. I’m thinking back through the book and it’s damn good.
October 11, 2024
Many thanks to Grove Atlantic for the ARC.
I went into this book fairly blind, with only a vague idea of what it would be about. A literary thriller maybe, with some historical color from South Africa and the Apartheid regime. It starts out strong, a Black DC power couple (Prudence and Davis) on their way to dinner at a fancy restaurant. There are rich people problems, with a hint of danger and some dark portents which end up paying off much later. Really well written and observed, with the specificity of place and people that bring a book to life for me. So I'm settling into what I imagine will be a solid 4 star thriller.
But then....everything starts to ratchet up. The flashbacks to Prudence's time in South Africa are really well captured, it feels like 1996, then slowly but surely a coiled tension and horror build - and the past catches up with the present. Matshediso (Mat) really emerges as a three dimensional character here, the enigmatic guy from Prudence's past that kicks things in motion. Is he an antagonist? For sure. Is he the bad guy? Hard to say really. The novel doesn't condemn him entirely, but it doesn't let him off the hook either.
Everything about this novel sings. The dialog is natural, and the various accents - Afrikaans, Trini - are handled perfectly, not overcooked. It is the details that make this book special. The misogynoir, the micro and not so micro aggressions that Black women face, the weight of our personal history on the people we become.
I also want to point out Roland the neurodivergent son - this aspect of the story might feel tacked on in another book as an empathy cheat code to get the reader on board with Prudence, but it rings true here - and most importantly is balanced with the demands of a thriller plot. A lot of times, you get kids thrown into these stories but they are quickly sidelined when they become inconvenient to the mechanics of the narrative (looking at you, Homeland). We never forget that Prudence is a mother.
Once the scale of the crimes and the stakes are laid bare, the story zips along with the pace of a thriller, built on the scaffolding of the characters and the tragedies in their past. By the ending, there is a sense that things could really go sideways - and they do in spectacular fashion. I love the fact that the author upends the usual way these finales unfold.
Both thematically and conceptually, this book is as sharp as razor wire. It's like a puzzle where each piece fits and accentuates the larger picture being painted. The complicated history of South Africa post-Apartheid, the TRC - ideas of reconciliation vs retribution -and how this twins with Prudence and her past. You really get the sense that a lot of thought and care went into every single part of this novel. The writing here is smart without being showboaty as well.
The one book I would compare it to of recent years is American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson, which also explores the commonalities/tensions of Black women from the US who are thrust into the geopolitics of Africa.
A fantastic novel. One that will stay with me for a long while. Highly recommended.
I went into this book fairly blind, with only a vague idea of what it would be about. A literary thriller maybe, with some historical color from South Africa and the Apartheid regime. It starts out strong, a Black DC power couple (Prudence and Davis) on their way to dinner at a fancy restaurant. There are rich people problems, with a hint of danger and some dark portents which end up paying off much later. Really well written and observed, with the specificity of place and people that bring a book to life for me. So I'm settling into what I imagine will be a solid 4 star thriller.
But then....everything starts to ratchet up. The flashbacks to Prudence's time in South Africa are really well captured, it feels like 1996, then slowly but surely a coiled tension and horror build - and the past catches up with the present. Matshediso (Mat) really emerges as a three dimensional character here, the enigmatic guy from Prudence's past that kicks things in motion. Is he an antagonist? For sure. Is he the bad guy? Hard to say really. The novel doesn't condemn him entirely, but it doesn't let him off the hook either.
Everything about this novel sings. The dialog is natural, and the various accents - Afrikaans, Trini - are handled perfectly, not overcooked. It is the details that make this book special. The misogynoir, the micro and not so micro aggressions that Black women face, the weight of our personal history on the people we become.
I also want to point out Roland the neurodivergent son - this aspect of the story might feel tacked on in another book as an empathy cheat code to get the reader on board with Prudence, but it rings true here - and most importantly is balanced with the demands of a thriller plot. A lot of times, you get kids thrown into these stories but they are quickly sidelined when they become inconvenient to the mechanics of the narrative (looking at you, Homeland). We never forget that Prudence is a mother.
Once the scale of the crimes and the stakes are laid bare, the story zips along with the pace of a thriller, built on the scaffolding of the characters and the tragedies in their past. By the ending, there is a sense that things could really go sideways - and they do in spectacular fashion. I love the fact that the author upends the usual way these finales unfold.
Both thematically and conceptually, this book is as sharp as razor wire. It's like a puzzle where each piece fits and accentuates the larger picture being painted. The complicated history of South Africa post-Apartheid, the TRC - ideas of reconciliation vs retribution -and how this twins with Prudence and her past. You really get the sense that a lot of thought and care went into every single part of this novel. The writing here is smart without being showboaty as well.
The one book I would compare it to of recent years is American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson, which also explores the commonalities/tensions of Black women from the US who are thrust into the geopolitics of Africa.
A fantastic novel. One that will stay with me for a long while. Highly recommended.
February 11, 2025
In Casualties of Truth, we follow Prudence, who has crafted a life of comfort and privilege. She is married to a loving and handsome husband, has the ability to stay home after a successful career as a lawyer to care for her special needs son. The novel kicks off on a night when Prudence and her husband Davis are heading into a stormy DC night to meet Davis’ new colleague. But when they arrive, Prudence recognizes Matshediso, who she knew decades earlier when she spent time in South Africa as a law student and attended the 1996 truth and reconciliation hearings. The secrets these two share could bring Prudences’s entire life crumbling down. As we visit the past and learn the details of what binds these two together, it’s impossible not to ponder some big questions. Can a country move forward toward forgiveness and repair after unforgivable acts of the past? What happens to the festering nucleus of rage and helplessness when injustices are systemically accepted by a society? And more critically, what is Prudence willing to do to safeguard the life she so treasures? It was difficult to put this book down to tend to my every day needs because this book is INCREDIBLE. I loved it.
April 7, 2025
This book grabs your attention from the get-go - within the first 2 pages, a police officer is murdered. Hello! You have my attention! The story jumps between present-day Washington, 2018, and the past, Johannesburg, 1996, weaving together the life of Prudence Wright, a woman whose seemingly perfect life is shattered by an encounter with Matshediso, a man from her past.
As the story unfolds, Prudence is forced to confront her past as a law student in South Africa during the Truth and Reconciliation hearings. The author's portrayal of this pivotal moment in South African history is intense and compelling.
As a thriller love I enjoyed the suspense and mystery aspects and was unable to stop reading until I uncovered the truth.
However, the book felt part literary fiction and part thriller which overall felt a bit disjointed. The past and present storylines sometimes struggled to mesh, and I found myself wanting more as it relates to Matshediso's motivations. Prudence's choices also felt a bit unconvincing at times.
Despite these issues, the book remained engaging and enjoyable. Sharma’s handling of the Truth and Reconciliation hearings was a standout aspect, and I appreciated the insight into this complex period in South African history.
As the story unfolds, Prudence is forced to confront her past as a law student in South Africa during the Truth and Reconciliation hearings. The author's portrayal of this pivotal moment in South African history is intense and compelling.
As a thriller love I enjoyed the suspense and mystery aspects and was unable to stop reading until I uncovered the truth.
However, the book felt part literary fiction and part thriller which overall felt a bit disjointed. The past and present storylines sometimes struggled to mesh, and I found myself wanting more as it relates to Matshediso's motivations. Prudence's choices also felt a bit unconvincing at times.
Despite these issues, the book remained engaging and enjoyable. Sharma’s handling of the Truth and Reconciliation hearings was a standout aspect, and I appreciated the insight into this complex period in South African history.
July 29, 2024
Narrated in a dual timeline, the story moves between 1996 South Africa, and 2018 Washington DC. Prudence, leading a seemingly ‘normal’ life with her husband, comes face to face with Matshediso, a South African man seeking revenge for past wrongs. Travelling back in time to the sessions of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which Prudence attended as a law student, anchors the nightmare that begins unfolding in 2018 Washington DC.
This is a short read, and as compelling as a thriller (which it is, in some ways), but also a difficult one for the content. It ruminates on the meanings of ‘truth’, justice, history, and the inescapability of the echoes of a violent past.
Hands down, one of the best books I’ve read this year!
A HUGE thanks to NetGalley and the author for the ARC! This is a book I will be buying as soon as I see it in a bookshop!
This is a short read, and as compelling as a thriller (which it is, in some ways), but also a difficult one for the content. It ruminates on the meanings of ‘truth’, justice, history, and the inescapability of the echoes of a violent past.
Hands down, one of the best books I’ve read this year!
A HUGE thanks to NetGalley and the author for the ARC! This is a book I will be buying as soon as I see it in a bookshop!
February 25, 2025
This is definitely a page turner and I love that it was historical fiction written like a thriller. The book follows alternating timelines between the 1996 Truth and Reconciliation trials in Johannesburg, South Africa and 2018 as a woman grapples with a past she hoped to leave behind. The book really calls into question the relationship between vengeance and justice and the reverberations of harm. I really enjoyed the book up until the last few chapters where the tone took an abrupt shift and it felt like the author didn't quite know how to land the plane from the high stakes climax. It definitely kept me invested though and I read it in two days. The plot was plotting! This would be a great book for a book club discussion.
March 1, 2025
I didn’t particularly enjoy this reading experience. I couldn’t quite make the connections the author seemed to make. However, the writing was good. “Black, as you call it, is a word they make for us. But we decide for ourselves who is for us. Not because of skin.“. I also appreciated learning more about the Truth and Reconciliation hearings in 1996 South Africa. “Where there is injustice, invariably peace becomes a casualty.” - Desmond Tutu. Overall, interesting. I received this book as a free giveaway in exchange for my honest review. 3 stars
Lit fic featuring Black American and South African characters
2025
Giveaway paperback
52 book 52 - published in 2025
Pop - book got for free
GR Choice - lit fic (3 stars)
Lit fic featuring Black American and South African characters
2025
Giveaway paperback
52 book 52 - published in 2025
Pop - book got for free
GR Choice - lit fic (3 stars)
April 16, 2025
I love reading historical fiction because, I always learn something. I knew nothing about the amnesty trials, that took place in South Africa, after apartheid was over. As I read, I discovered that one of my predictions was correct, and that made me happy. I like the fact that, a neurodivergent child was one of the characters. The plot in this book was new to me, and I really enjoyed it. This book got my attention from the beginning, and had me caught up until the very end. If you are looking for an interesting read, that will have you on the edge of your seat, then look no further. 4.5 stars
March 3, 2025
I was enthralled with Casualities. The twenty year plus time span of countries and characters and re-surfacing conversations are captivating. The never stated, reader inferred possibilities of extreme right dictators and military takeovers is chilling. Separate from possible similarities, the story is so well executed in flow, personalities, and relationship development. Prudence's (one of the main characters) ability to do the unthinkable and yet maintain her career as part time legal consultant, motherhood, and wifehood is intriguing. Prudence "learned a long time ago that revenge rarely felt compensatory." The Truth and Reconciliation amnesty hearings affirm her conclusions. Matshediso of Apartheid South Africa, remains a mystery and rage-filled main character as well.
The increasing tension on so many levels is especially well designed, as is the climax and ambiguous ending. Excellent.
The increasing tension on so many levels is especially well designed, as is the climax and ambiguous ending. Excellent.
April 20, 2025
Okay…so this is a two timeline narrative, we are in DC in 2018 and Johannesburg, South African in 1996. Honestly I’m confused on the message of the book. She explains that casualties of truth are the people who were present during the worst time in your life that you never want to hear from again. They are those impacted by the actions of your “bad” truths. (Huh?)
DC 2018
Some weird shit is going on, around the characters! First, it is some insane hail storm that is damaging their car and cutting the electricity in the restaurant. Second, they hit a dog and I assume the owner jumped on their car and started growling at them (huh?). Third, it’s an unruly toddler, Charlie, in the restaurant given the patrons a show and his parents the blues. Now Charlie is lost in the restaurant (Charlie bad as hell). And in true Karen fashion, Charlie mother wants to blame Mat for her son’s disappearance (excuse you?) and when the child is found, they utter no apologies instead they just flee the restaurant.
Now for the characters, Prudence essentially hates her life. She is humiliated that she is a stay at home mom, seems to resent the fact that her child is autistic and while she loves her husband thinks he is mediocre (damn girl). Davis, Prudence husband and Tara (Davis’s coworker’s date) are innocent enough, but are coming across as obnoxious at this dinner table. Mat, Davis’s coworker, clearly has some history with our girl Pru, and tension is thick. Mat seems to want to reveal their history, but Prudence seems apprehensive.
Johannesburg 1996
We are in the middle of the truth and reconciliation trails. Basically Mandela and Tutu are holding the “white man”/government law enforcement feet to the fire for their racist practices and senseless killings during Apartheid!
Prudence is a law student in South Africa who is a spectator at the trials. Hearing testimony about the Mozambique Eight. 8 young boys who were coerced, intoxicated, interrogated, electrocuted, injected with poison, and then blown up! All by law enforcement (WTF!!) Our Mat has stolen her seat, which has Pru peeved. So much so, that she interrupts the man’s lunch. They have lunch a couple of times. Pru makes a sexual advance toward, and Mat rebuffs her. Prudence later finds herself in a terrible situation accused of stealing gas, when the police arrive, they allow her to call her friends to help her. The last friend she calls is Mat. None of the friends answer the phone and the officer proceeds to have her strip and attempts to rape her. She manages to get away just as Mat pulls up. (What the hell am I reading??) Then Mat and Pru follow the officer home. They slash his tires, but that didn’t feel like enough and Mat returns to stab the officer to death. (Yikes!)
So then the timelines merge, and Mat enlists Prudence to help kill Zwane the man responsible for the Mozambique 8 who were Mat’s older brothers and their friends. Now what is crazy is that Pru goes along with plot and actually kills the dude! And now I suppose they are each other’s casualties of truth. (WTH!)
Okay…so this is an interesting story land interesting concept, but there are some weird elements that complicate the story. For example: the mommy/parenting resentment didn’t feel completely flushed out or explained; this tension between Pru and her husband and Pru and Mat that is just there, and makes both relationships odd and incongruent; Pru’s rough childhood and being un-housed; and this idea around a woman giving up her professional career to be a stay-at-home mother. Like I get they add depth to the character, but they don’t add to the story and are just distracting. I really wanted to like this book, and I see the potential of a good story about truths and comparing America and South African racism and avenging wrongs made against one’s family. Or the book could have been about Prudence and her struggles and how it shaped life and how it shows up in her parenting and relationship with men. For a 252 page we had way too much to discuss.
DC 2018
Some weird shit is going on, around the characters! First, it is some insane hail storm that is damaging their car and cutting the electricity in the restaurant. Second, they hit a dog and I assume the owner jumped on their car and started growling at them (huh?). Third, it’s an unruly toddler, Charlie, in the restaurant given the patrons a show and his parents the blues. Now Charlie is lost in the restaurant (Charlie bad as hell). And in true Karen fashion, Charlie mother wants to blame Mat for her son’s disappearance (excuse you?) and when the child is found, they utter no apologies instead they just flee the restaurant.
Now for the characters, Prudence essentially hates her life. She is humiliated that she is a stay at home mom, seems to resent the fact that her child is autistic and while she loves her husband thinks he is mediocre (damn girl). Davis, Prudence husband and Tara (Davis’s coworker’s date) are innocent enough, but are coming across as obnoxious at this dinner table. Mat, Davis’s coworker, clearly has some history with our girl Pru, and tension is thick. Mat seems to want to reveal their history, but Prudence seems apprehensive.
Johannesburg 1996
We are in the middle of the truth and reconciliation trails. Basically Mandela and Tutu are holding the “white man”/government law enforcement feet to the fire for their racist practices and senseless killings during Apartheid!
Prudence is a law student in South Africa who is a spectator at the trials. Hearing testimony about the Mozambique Eight. 8 young boys who were coerced, intoxicated, interrogated, electrocuted, injected with poison, and then blown up! All by law enforcement (WTF!!) Our Mat has stolen her seat, which has Pru peeved. So much so, that she interrupts the man’s lunch. They have lunch a couple of times. Pru makes a sexual advance toward, and Mat rebuffs her. Prudence later finds herself in a terrible situation accused of stealing gas, when the police arrive, they allow her to call her friends to help her. The last friend she calls is Mat. None of the friends answer the phone and the officer proceeds to have her strip and attempts to rape her. She manages to get away just as Mat pulls up. (What the hell am I reading??) Then Mat and Pru follow the officer home. They slash his tires, but that didn’t feel like enough and Mat returns to stab the officer to death. (Yikes!)
So then the timelines merge, and Mat enlists Prudence to help kill Zwane the man responsible for the Mozambique 8 who were Mat’s older brothers and their friends. Now what is crazy is that Pru goes along with plot and actually kills the dude! And now I suppose they are each other’s casualties of truth. (WTH!)
Okay…so this is an interesting story land interesting concept, but there are some weird elements that complicate the story. For example: the mommy/parenting resentment didn’t feel completely flushed out or explained; this tension between Pru and her husband and Pru and Mat that is just there, and makes both relationships odd and incongruent; Pru’s rough childhood and being un-housed; and this idea around a woman giving up her professional career to be a stay-at-home mother. Like I get they add depth to the character, but they don’t add to the story and are just distracting. I really wanted to like this book, and I see the potential of a good story about truths and comparing America and South African racism and avenging wrongs made against one’s family. Or the book could have been about Prudence and her struggles and how it shaped life and how it shows up in her parenting and relationship with men. For a 252 page we had way too much to discuss.
September 21, 2024
I recieved an ARC of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.
This book did a very good job explaining the basics of the truth and reconcilliation hearings, and why they were necessay, which was helpful as I am quite uneducated in the topic. The writing was also well done, and the cover was very pretty. I can also acknowledge that as a white North American, many of the topics in this book are experiences that I will never personally have and it is not my place to judge how a black woman reacts to racism.
The characters, however, are all incredibly unlikable. At the begining of the book, Prudence and Davis begin talking about how Mat found his girlfriend on Tinder and judge him for it. Davis generally seems like a terrible terrible guy, or at least someone who has no idea how to conduct himself in public. He brings up his wife's bad childhood at a dinner with his new coworker who (to his knowledge) has just met the woman for the first time. When their autistic son throws a cup of hot chocolate in Prudences face and tries to kick her, she tells him to go to his room. Davis' reaction? Telling the kid that mommy is mean for yelling at him.
Prudence isn't much better. She moves to South Africa to help file amnesty paperwork for prisoners, but the day before she is supposed to sit in on a truth and reconcilliation hearing, admits that she actually hasn't done much research on the matter. She is given reading material to catch herself up, and doesn't really read much of it until later. She comes to a foreign country and essentially expects to be catered to the entire time. When she complains about how a waitress treated her, she is told that that is how the service inductry in the area works and actually that Prudence had been the rude one. Instead of apologizing, she doubles down that they should be serving her better because "thats how it works in the US".
While Prudence certainly didn't deserve to be raped by the police officer, everything leading up to him being called is entirely her fault. She knows that they doen't pump their own gas in the area, but when the attendant doesn't immediately service her she decides to pump herself. She doesn't even bother going over to the attendant to ask for service. She knows that not everyone accepts credit cards, but after two months in the country somehow doesn't carry any of the local currency, only American dollars. When she goes to pay, she discovers that they dont accept credit and also don't accept American money. She has pumped a full tank of gas and has no way to pay for it, so the attendant tells her that she has stolen the gas and calls the police. She then insists that they should have a signs, since thats how it works in America.
I also thought the coment about how she knew her 7-year-old was "playing with his p***s" was really out of place and could have been written differently.
Overall, I think the premise was interesting, the cover was pretty, and that the writing was okay, but this book wasn't for me. Its really hard to root for such obnoxious characters who never learn better, just double down on their ignorance the whole book.
This book did a very good job explaining the basics of the truth and reconcilliation hearings, and why they were necessay, which was helpful as I am quite uneducated in the topic. The writing was also well done, and the cover was very pretty. I can also acknowledge that as a white North American, many of the topics in this book are experiences that I will never personally have and it is not my place to judge how a black woman reacts to racism.
The characters, however, are all incredibly unlikable. At the begining of the book, Prudence and Davis begin talking about how Mat found his girlfriend on Tinder and judge him for it. Davis generally seems like a terrible terrible guy, or at least someone who has no idea how to conduct himself in public. He brings up his wife's bad childhood at a dinner with his new coworker who (to his knowledge) has just met the woman for the first time. When their autistic son throws a cup of hot chocolate in Prudences face and tries to kick her, she tells him to go to his room. Davis' reaction? Telling the kid that mommy is mean for yelling at him.
Prudence isn't much better. She moves to South Africa to help file amnesty paperwork for prisoners, but the day before she is supposed to sit in on a truth and reconcilliation hearing, admits that she actually hasn't done much research on the matter. She is given reading material to catch herself up, and doesn't really read much of it until later. She comes to a foreign country and essentially expects to be catered to the entire time. When she complains about how a waitress treated her, she is told that that is how the service inductry in the area works and actually that Prudence had been the rude one. Instead of apologizing, she doubles down that they should be serving her better because "thats how it works in the US".
While Prudence certainly didn't deserve to be raped by the police officer, everything leading up to him being called is entirely her fault. She knows that they doen't pump their own gas in the area, but when the attendant doesn't immediately service her she decides to pump herself. She doesn't even bother going over to the attendant to ask for service. She knows that not everyone accepts credit cards, but after two months in the country somehow doesn't carry any of the local currency, only American dollars. When she goes to pay, she discovers that they dont accept credit and also don't accept American money. She has pumped a full tank of gas and has no way to pay for it, so the attendant tells her that she has stolen the gas and calls the police. She then insists that they should have a signs, since thats how it works in America.
I also thought the coment about how she knew her 7-year-old was "playing with his p***s" was really out of place and could have been written differently.
Overall, I think the premise was interesting, the cover was pretty, and that the writing was okay, but this book wasn't for me. Its really hard to root for such obnoxious characters who never learn better, just double down on their ignorance the whole book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 23, 2024
This book is such a beautiful, haunting and thought-provoking read. I was completely ignorant of some of the heinous crimes that took place in apartheid South Africa, and Lauren Francis Sharma not only brings that truth to light, but also forces readers to grapple with what people are meant to do with all the broken pieces that remain. How do people move on from such horrors? Is there ever real justice? Is true reconciliation ever really within reach? Book clubs take note — Casualties of Truth is going to inspire hours of discussion and debate. It has a tightly-knit cast of complicated characters all grappling with the past in their own flawed ways — but in the end, Prudence won my heart, my sympathy, and my respect, too. I absolutely LOVED this book.
January 25, 2025
Can there be anything besides retribution when trying to right the wrongs of the past? Is there really a correct way to right those wrongdoings when said wrongdoings caused pain and suffering for years?
This novel is an outstanding work that looks at the things people can, and sometimes do, choose to do when faced with an opportunity to harm those who have harmed others. It begs the question of whether or not there could ever be an end to finding retribution when you’ve started on a journey of it.
This novel is an outstanding work that looks at the things people can, and sometimes do, choose to do when faced with an opportunity to harm those who have harmed others. It begs the question of whether or not there could ever be an end to finding retribution when you’ve started on a journey of it.
September 29, 2025
This was such a rich and moving read. I was drawn in not only by the lyrical writing but also by the depth and complexity of Prudence as a character. She felt so human, flawed, layered, searching, and that made her story resonate even more with me.
Francis-Sharma weaves together intricate details that breathe life into every page. The novel is not just about one woman’s choices; it is about history, truth, the costs we all bear when silence or survival becomes more powerful than honesty.
However, despite all the above, the way the book ended makes me feel like the story is incomplete, and I want to know more of how Matshediso continues showing up in Prudence’s life. There’s also a few other parts of the story that I still have questions on. Overall, I would still recommend this book… I feel like I learned a lot about history that I was not familiar with.
Francis-Sharma weaves together intricate details that breathe life into every page. The novel is not just about one woman’s choices; it is about history, truth, the costs we all bear when silence or survival becomes more powerful than honesty.
However, despite all the above, the way the book ended makes me feel like the story is incomplete, and I want to know more of how Matshediso continues showing up in Prudence’s life. There’s also a few other parts of the story that I still have questions on. Overall, I would still recommend this book… I feel like I learned a lot about history that I was not familiar with.
April 29, 2025
Another bookclub book I went into blindy (LOL) but zero regrets! I finished the last half of the book in less than 24hrs. Quite the page turner. Centering on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in post-apartheid South Africa, "the new government...was doing something never done before--forging the most progressive democracy ever envisioned while also making amends for past horrors for which they were largely not responsible." Main character, Prudence, has a tumultuous history that she's overcoming when a law internship brings her to South Africa for the hearings. She crosses paths with another individual attending the hearings and their futures become irreversibly intertwined. Alternating between their past interactions and present, Prudence attempts to extricate herself from ties that bind her to her own violent past and to this individual.
More than once, I gasped reading this book and couldn't flip pages fast enough to keep up with events. "...she began to wonder if it was true, what he said, about her never again being the hunted. And if this were true, did this mean, she wondered, that she was now and forever the hunter?" I could see this being made into a film! And clearly with a sequel given novel's ending.
Still needing reconciliation for the rainy night's events. Had to flip back to check that I hadn't misread. Wondered if this was some arbitrary magical realism. Reappears by book's ending, but still felt unresolved.
More than once, I gasped reading this book and couldn't flip pages fast enough to keep up with events. "...she began to wonder if it was true, what he said, about her never again being the hunted. And if this were true, did this mean, she wondered, that she was now and forever the hunter?" I could see this being made into a film! And clearly with a sequel given novel's ending.
Still needing reconciliation for the rainy night's events. Had to flip back to check that I hadn't misread. Wondered if this was some arbitrary magical realism. Reappears by book's ending, but still felt unresolved.
May 9, 2025
This had real promise…until the author decided to turn it into a thriller about half-way through, and my ability to suspend disbelief was taxed to overload. Too bad, because it deals with some interesting and important topics in the history of South Africa, and raises provocative questions about the legacies of trauma, about guilt, forgiveness, and responsibility, and about human connections. Prudence is a memorable character…but sidetracking the novel into covert operations territory is a wrong turn.
July 17, 2025
I read this book in preparation for a book event featuring Lauren Francis-Sharma. It was not at all what I expected it to be (I dived in without having read a word about it beforehand). It's so well-written, and the pages basically turned themselves - because I just had to know what happened next. The dual timeline nature was interesting, in that I never really wanted to switch out of either timeline - they both has a suspenseful/mysterious quality. The dual setting nature was also intriguing. It's set in Washington, D.C. and in South Africa. It was nice to read the background of the author, who spent a great deal of time in South Africa, including during one of the most critical times in history.
December 6, 2025
I’m not quite sure what pulled me toward Casualties of Truth, but I’m glad I followed the instinct. A departure from my usual reads, this historical fiction unfolds like a thriller, moving between dual timelines to examine South Africa’s complex past alongside questions of global Black identity. It explores relationships shaped by grief, revenge, love, and the need to feel safe in an unsteady world. The writing is confident and immersive, carrying the story forward with steady momentum. A worthwhile read, especially if you like historical fiction with the urgency of a thriller.
February 25, 2025
Fascinating! This story has a dual time line: One set in South Africa in 1996 during the amnesty hearings, and current day.
In 1996, the newly-established South African government (replacing the racist Apartheid) held hearings to consider granting amnesty to people who had committed various atrocities during Apartheid.
Prudence is our protagonist. She is a Harvard-educated lawyer who did a 6-month internship in South Africa in 1996. She is assigned to help prepare the documents for amnesty seekers, and also to attend the hearings. She takes notes, pictures, and hears of numerous atrocities. Sitting next to her at one of the hearings is Matshediso, a local. An uneasy friendship develops. Prudence soon comes to realize that the atrocities of Apartheid are not over. Matshediso rescues her from an ugly encounter.
Flash forward to present day: Prudence is now a married mother living in Washington DC, set to have a restaurant dinner with her husband and his new business associate. Said associate turns out to be Matshediso.
I'll stop here, as I don't want to offer spoilers.
In 1996, the newly-established South African government (replacing the racist Apartheid) held hearings to consider granting amnesty to people who had committed various atrocities during Apartheid.
Prudence is our protagonist. She is a Harvard-educated lawyer who did a 6-month internship in South Africa in 1996. She is assigned to help prepare the documents for amnesty seekers, and also to attend the hearings. She takes notes, pictures, and hears of numerous atrocities. Sitting next to her at one of the hearings is Matshediso, a local. An uneasy friendship develops. Prudence soon comes to realize that the atrocities of Apartheid are not over. Matshediso rescues her from an ugly encounter.
Flash forward to present day: Prudence is now a married mother living in Washington DC, set to have a restaurant dinner with her husband and his new business associate. Said associate turns out to be Matshediso.
I'll stop here, as I don't want to offer spoilers.
April 5, 2025
4.5 rounded up to 5 stars
Casualties of Truth opens with Prudence Wright and her husband on their way to dinner with her husband's new colleague. The couple has an unsettling encounter with a homeless man, who climbs onto their car after her husband accidentally hits his dog. From there, the night escalates in tension as Prudence realizes her husband's colleague is Matshediso, a man she met in South Africa while observing the Truth and Reconciliation trials as a law firm intern. The novel shifts between 1996-era South Africa and Prudence's present in Washington, DC, revealing experiences from Prudence's past that she has tried to put behind her but that Matshediso wants to dredge back up.
This book was so compelling! It really got me thinking about the difference between justice and vengeance, the impacts and legacy of trauma, and the moral costs of violence in all its forms. Although it is literary fiction, it feels like a thriller, especially when the dinner scenes are juxtaposed with the scenes from her experiences in South Africa and the testimony she witnesses about atrocities committed during apartheid. I read more than 150 pages in one day because I didn't want to put it down. I will admit that the ending got a little muddled for me, but this was such a good book overall that I don't care. Highly recommend this one to folks who want a propulsive story with important ideas.
**Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**
Casualties of Truth opens with Prudence Wright and her husband on their way to dinner with her husband's new colleague. The couple has an unsettling encounter with a homeless man, who climbs onto their car after her husband accidentally hits his dog. From there, the night escalates in tension as Prudence realizes her husband's colleague is Matshediso, a man she met in South Africa while observing the Truth and Reconciliation trials as a law firm intern. The novel shifts between 1996-era South Africa and Prudence's present in Washington, DC, revealing experiences from Prudence's past that she has tried to put behind her but that Matshediso wants to dredge back up.
This book was so compelling! It really got me thinking about the difference between justice and vengeance, the impacts and legacy of trauma, and the moral costs of violence in all its forms. Although it is literary fiction, it feels like a thriller, especially when the dinner scenes are juxtaposed with the scenes from her experiences in South Africa and the testimony she witnesses about atrocities committed during apartheid. I read more than 150 pages in one day because I didn't want to put it down. I will admit that the ending got a little muddled for me, but this was such a good book overall that I don't care. Highly recommend this one to folks who want a propulsive story with important ideas.
**Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**
May 1, 2025
Back in 1996, Prudence spent a few months in South Africa as a law student. On several ocassions, she attended the Truth and Reconciliation hearings, which unearthed some nasty horrors perpetrated during the apartheid era. Fast forward a couple of decades to Washington, DC, where Prudence lives with her husband and a young autistic son. During a fateful dinner with friends, she unexpectedly runs into Matshediso, who was a distant friend from her days in South Africa, someone who was a witness and active participant to an act of violent revenge. Now, he elicits Prudence's help with a tough task. Not an easy read but ultimately a great nail-biting thriller that does a great job at shining a light on South Africa's dark past.
September 12, 2025
My goodness! This book was outstanding!!!! I was already a fan of Lauren’s work, but this is her best work. The complex characters, the plot, the descriptions! It was all so well done. Can’t wait to see what she does next!
Read
September 21, 2025I’m not sure what I thought of this. It started off as a slog, then I got invested, then I thought it was a bit silly. But it’s an interesting enough story with a compelling background… I’d definitely like to read more novels about truth and reconciliation after apartheid.
October 27, 2025
Prudence's inner dialogue is eerily similar to my own inner dialogue.
Namely: "She wished he would shut the hell up."
Namely: "She wished he would shut the hell up."
November 23, 2025
Perceptive, troubling, and uncompromising, yet awkwardly contrived.
June 12, 2025
Prudence Wright was a twenty-four-old law student who traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa, along with nine other classmates, for a law internship. It was 1996, and South Africa was undergoing a social reckoning from the former sixty years of apartheid. To that effect, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was conducting hearings in a court of law to determine whether former government officials, military, and collaborators were to be granted immunity, provided they confessed the crimes and activities they had been involved in.
Prudence was sent to observe and report on the hearings. She recorded every word, took photos; even recorded a secret session she walked into that had been conducted while the court was in recess. That’s how she met young Matshediso, who on his first attendance occupied the seat Prudence had been sitting on since the start of the hearings. Prudence and Matshediso bonded over food and local issues, but that bond acquired a new meaning after Matshediso saved Prudence’s life.
Fast-forward to the year 2018. Prudence, once a successful lawyer, is now a stay-at-home mom. She’s married to Davis, also a lawyer. They live in Baltimore, Maryland, and are on their way to DC. Davis is throwing a welcome dinner at a fancy restaurant for Matt, a Swedish computer wiz who is joining his law firm, and Prudence is joining him. Little does she know, that she is going to encounter a blast from the past, and that there will be a price to pay for previous service rendered.
A breeze to read and a page-turner, Casualties of Truth is a gripping revenge narrative in which chapters alternate between Johannesburg, 1996, and Washington, DC, 2018, and invariably end in cliffhangers. The novel is topical, moving smoothly between apartheid era and post-apartheid atrocities committed by military officers and collaborators alike, and modern day parallels of race discrimination in a fancy setting in our nation’s capital. The novel doesn’t shy away from graphic violence; there are trigger subjects like rape and murder, but the author doesn’t overdo the violence, it’s well within the scope of the story.
I had no prior knowledge about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the atrocities sanctioned by military authorities and government officials against dissenters during the apartheid era, so this novel proved informative as well as entertaining.
Overall, a short read that was incandescent, informative and riveting from start to finish. A read with all the feels!
Prudence was sent to observe and report on the hearings. She recorded every word, took photos; even recorded a secret session she walked into that had been conducted while the court was in recess. That’s how she met young Matshediso, who on his first attendance occupied the seat Prudence had been sitting on since the start of the hearings. Prudence and Matshediso bonded over food and local issues, but that bond acquired a new meaning after Matshediso saved Prudence’s life.
Fast-forward to the year 2018. Prudence, once a successful lawyer, is now a stay-at-home mom. She’s married to Davis, also a lawyer. They live in Baltimore, Maryland, and are on their way to DC. Davis is throwing a welcome dinner at a fancy restaurant for Matt, a Swedish computer wiz who is joining his law firm, and Prudence is joining him. Little does she know, that she is going to encounter a blast from the past, and that there will be a price to pay for previous service rendered.
A breeze to read and a page-turner, Casualties of Truth is a gripping revenge narrative in which chapters alternate between Johannesburg, 1996, and Washington, DC, 2018, and invariably end in cliffhangers. The novel is topical, moving smoothly between apartheid era and post-apartheid atrocities committed by military officers and collaborators alike, and modern day parallels of race discrimination in a fancy setting in our nation’s capital. The novel doesn’t shy away from graphic violence; there are trigger subjects like rape and murder, but the author doesn’t overdo the violence, it’s well within the scope of the story.
I had no prior knowledge about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the atrocities sanctioned by military authorities and government officials against dissenters during the apartheid era, so this novel proved informative as well as entertaining.
Overall, a short read that was incandescent, informative and riveting from start to finish. A read with all the feels!
Read
March 9, 2025The stakes are high in CASUALTIES OF TRUTH (gifted Grove Atlantic) by Lauren Francis-Sharma, when the past reappears as a smiling man on a precarious night, bringing along with him memories of a time that Prudence Wright thought were behind her. The man and Prudence share a violent secret, one that began with the Truth and Reconciliation hearings that Prudence attended in 1996 as a law firm intern in Johannesburg—one that may have sprouted as a seed from the brutality of Prudence’s childhood and the murder of her father. All this stands in sharp contrast to the pristine-ness of her present life in Washington DC: a handsome husband, a prestigious career history, and the status of a well-off Black family. But this, too, begins to crack apart, as we delve further into Prudence’s psyche and as she is drawn into a dangerous ploy at revenge by this man from her past.
Tension builds; the stakes grow ever higher. “Memories,” Prudence thinks at one point, “were dangerous things, grenades with shaky pins.” I felt a chill the moment past and present merged together in the text to fully mix. In particular, Prudence’s recollection of the Truth and Reconciliation hearings is presented to the reader in all their violence, as the testimonies reveal the terror and abuse under South African Apartheid, stripping it bare. Running as a common thread through the book is an interrogation of justice and revenge, and the blurry, sometimes indistinguishable line between the two.
Thanks again Grove Atlantic and Atlantic Monthly Press for the gifted copy! Would recommend to those who like thrillers that place a sharp lens on racism, the constraints of Black excellence, and the crimes of history.
Tension builds; the stakes grow ever higher. “Memories,” Prudence thinks at one point, “were dangerous things, grenades with shaky pins.” I felt a chill the moment past and present merged together in the text to fully mix. In particular, Prudence’s recollection of the Truth and Reconciliation hearings is presented to the reader in all their violence, as the testimonies reveal the terror and abuse under South African Apartheid, stripping it bare. Running as a common thread through the book is an interrogation of justice and revenge, and the blurry, sometimes indistinguishable line between the two.
Thanks again Grove Atlantic and Atlantic Monthly Press for the gifted copy! Would recommend to those who like thrillers that place a sharp lens on racism, the constraints of Black excellence, and the crimes of history.
January 3, 2025
When I read a novel in which the limning of an individual’s experience so captures the vicissitudes of the zeitgeist, I’m given to wonder whether the author knew when they began the project that this was the goal, where it was going. Did Lauren Francis-Sharma know when she began CASUALTIES OF TRUTH that its publication date would come in the month following the inauguration of a president who has committed and abetted and facilitated and encouraged countless atrocities, assaults, abrogations, and shameless malefactions against decency, morality, and humanity, and yet never suffered the consequences of his actions, but, rather, continued to accrete power and riches and influence; that the world would be descending into rotting decomposition, witnessing genocide committed by bullying countries on weaker states, experience class and gender and religious and ethnic variances demonized and zealously targeted for destruction as the world seemingly hurtles toward Armageddon?
CASUALTIES OF TRUTH is not an easy novel. But it is an essential one. It poses moral questions and conundrums with which all thinking, feeling citizens of the world are either already grappling or soon will be.
Prudence Wright, protagonist of the novel, spent a few months in South Africa in 1996 as an intern at a Johannesburg law firm, during which time she attended sessions held by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the purpose of which was to expose the human rights atrocities and crimes carried out from 1960 to 1994. Meant to heal through transparency, accountability, and trust-building therefrom, the committee had the power to grant amnesty to the perpetrators but not the power to implement reparations to the victims and survivors. 21,000 victims were heard, about 2000 of them in public hearings. Out of the approximately 7200 applications for amnesty made, 849 were granted.
Which, in my opinion, was probably 849 too many. As with the Nuremburg defendants, some of the appellants argued that they were following orders from the state and thus should not be held liable for their actions. The appellants contention was that mens rea was not present since they believed — or were led to believe — that they were at war. However, torture, deliberate attacks on civilians, and other abhorrent crimes against humanity are not excused even in wartime.
Prudence meets Matshediso during the sessions and their paths cross, their fates intertwine in ferociously unfortunate and frightening ways.
Decades later, Prudence, having put on the back burner a successful career as a global management consultant in order to care for her son who is on the spectrum, is out to a business dinner near her home in Washington, D.C. with her husband, Davis, to meet the new IT whiz he’s recruited for his employer, and that recruit turns out to be Matshediso.
Neither Prudence for Matshediso reveal their connection to one another, and it is in pieces and thriller-episodic fashion made clear whether he sought Prudence out, what his agenda is, and how the two were involved in the past. There is a cat and mouse element to the narrative, driving it, but its real force and impact is in the complicated, morally and ethically complex questions surrounding the actions taken by people whose spirits and lives are ground to bits, made inconsequential by power structures, governments, and martial constructs, in answer to which they’ve seemingly no recourse, where there is no possibility of institutional justice.
When — if ever — is vigilantism justified? Are the people doing the bidding of tyrants as guilty of wrongdoing as the tyrants? When irreparable, unimaginably evil harm has been done to someone, does it become an eye for an eye should they come in contact with those who committed the sins against them?
Neither Prudence nor Matshediso seem at first to be characters the reader will want to embrace. They are prickly, and at times not terribly self-aware, also self-righteous, but there are reasons, there is history which paved those paths to protective, distancing traits.
The narrative jumps between Johannesburg 1996 and Washington, D.C. 2018 during the first two thirds or so and then remains in 2018 as it hurtles to its disturbing, upsetting, terrifying conclusion.
In a novel that invites — demands, even — examination of the costs of oppression, class-ism, white-supremacy, misogyny, and how the currency of unfettered power unleashes the worst impulses of humanity, as well as the line between justice and vengeance, a novel in which decency and empathy are erased in the desire for retribution and retaliation, it is somehow made all the more powerful that such potential ugliness is laid out in such splendidly constructed prose, resplendent with insight, wisdom, and intensely, deeply human, emotional prosody.
I was moved again and again by paragraphs like this:
"There were people from one’s past who were present at the worst time in one’s life, people whose very name evoked a time and a place one didn’t want to revisit. Those were people you never wanted to see or hear from again. They were casualties of memory, casualties of too-hard truths."
That’s some awfully glorious writing, isn’t it? Again, something so hard, an emotion so gutting, writ in such rhythmic sentences.
There are myriad such sentences and paragraphs contained in this novel, along with enough fodder for thought and book club discussions to keep you awake for weeks on end. This is one of those books I will always remember vividly when I hear its title.
Please read it. I finished it in one day. It is difficult to put down. And now. off to find what to read next, so, here I am, going
CASUALTIES OF TRUTH is not an easy novel. But it is an essential one. It poses moral questions and conundrums with which all thinking, feeling citizens of the world are either already grappling or soon will be.
Prudence Wright, protagonist of the novel, spent a few months in South Africa in 1996 as an intern at a Johannesburg law firm, during which time she attended sessions held by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the purpose of which was to expose the human rights atrocities and crimes carried out from 1960 to 1994. Meant to heal through transparency, accountability, and trust-building therefrom, the committee had the power to grant amnesty to the perpetrators but not the power to implement reparations to the victims and survivors. 21,000 victims were heard, about 2000 of them in public hearings. Out of the approximately 7200 applications for amnesty made, 849 were granted.
Which, in my opinion, was probably 849 too many. As with the Nuremburg defendants, some of the appellants argued that they were following orders from the state and thus should not be held liable for their actions. The appellants contention was that mens rea was not present since they believed — or were led to believe — that they were at war. However, torture, deliberate attacks on civilians, and other abhorrent crimes against humanity are not excused even in wartime.
Prudence meets Matshediso during the sessions and their paths cross, their fates intertwine in ferociously unfortunate and frightening ways.
Decades later, Prudence, having put on the back burner a successful career as a global management consultant in order to care for her son who is on the spectrum, is out to a business dinner near her home in Washington, D.C. with her husband, Davis, to meet the new IT whiz he’s recruited for his employer, and that recruit turns out to be Matshediso.
Neither Prudence for Matshediso reveal their connection to one another, and it is in pieces and thriller-episodic fashion made clear whether he sought Prudence out, what his agenda is, and how the two were involved in the past. There is a cat and mouse element to the narrative, driving it, but its real force and impact is in the complicated, morally and ethically complex questions surrounding the actions taken by people whose spirits and lives are ground to bits, made inconsequential by power structures, governments, and martial constructs, in answer to which they’ve seemingly no recourse, where there is no possibility of institutional justice.
When — if ever — is vigilantism justified? Are the people doing the bidding of tyrants as guilty of wrongdoing as the tyrants? When irreparable, unimaginably evil harm has been done to someone, does it become an eye for an eye should they come in contact with those who committed the sins against them?
Neither Prudence nor Matshediso seem at first to be characters the reader will want to embrace. They are prickly, and at times not terribly self-aware, also self-righteous, but there are reasons, there is history which paved those paths to protective, distancing traits.
The narrative jumps between Johannesburg 1996 and Washington, D.C. 2018 during the first two thirds or so and then remains in 2018 as it hurtles to its disturbing, upsetting, terrifying conclusion.
In a novel that invites — demands, even — examination of the costs of oppression, class-ism, white-supremacy, misogyny, and how the currency of unfettered power unleashes the worst impulses of humanity, as well as the line between justice and vengeance, a novel in which decency and empathy are erased in the desire for retribution and retaliation, it is somehow made all the more powerful that such potential ugliness is laid out in such splendidly constructed prose, resplendent with insight, wisdom, and intensely, deeply human, emotional prosody.
I was moved again and again by paragraphs like this:
"There were people from one’s past who were present at the worst time in one’s life, people whose very name evoked a time and a place one didn’t want to revisit. Those were people you never wanted to see or hear from again. They were casualties of memory, casualties of too-hard truths."
That’s some awfully glorious writing, isn’t it? Again, something so hard, an emotion so gutting, writ in such rhythmic sentences.
There are myriad such sentences and paragraphs contained in this novel, along with enough fodder for thought and book club discussions to keep you awake for weeks on end. This is one of those books I will always remember vividly when I hear its title.
Please read it. I finished it in one day. It is difficult to put down. And now. off to find what to read next, so, here I am, going
November 3, 2024
I couldn't put this down. Prudence has to reconcile what she experienced in South Africa when a former acquaintance re-enters her life. Shifting between the Truth and Reconciliation period, post Apartheid in South Africa, to 2018 in Washington, DC, this read explores that time period and how it shaped the people involved as well as the country itself. And, what does get sacrificed could be the casualty of truth. This would be an excellent book group pick.
I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.
I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.
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