I was not a huge fan of this author's previous books but am glad that I gave this one a chance. I wasn't wholly convinced by the eventual outcome of the main dilemma but it was a good read and some of the South Africa sections were truly harrowing.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy in exchange for honest feedback

“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.”

There are parts of this book that are phenomenal, but other parts are dire and deadly dull. The whole meal in 2018 Washington is like paint drying. The Truth and Reconciliation Hearings are one huge information dump that I could have done without. The fact that a legal intern sent to work in a country like South Africa wouldn’t have read up on the background first is unbelievable. The internet might not have been up to much in 1996, but encyclopaedias and travel guides were readily available in public libraries.

In other words, this book is somewhat patchy, but the good parts were so good that it ended up being gripping and I stayed up late to finish it.

<i>My thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this as a digital ARC. This review is my honest and unbiased opinion after reading.</i>

This is an absorbing tale of a long-suppressed past being brought to the surface by what is supposedly a chance meeting with someone from that past time. After some stultifying early scenes, with flashbacks to traumatic scenes in 1990s South Africa when Prudence was an intern, she talks to the man who has just become her husband’s new colleague. Not only does he clearly recognise her, but he wants her help to take revenge. The end of the book turns into a nail-biting thriller with Prudence putting her own life on the line in something that could be a perfect story for a Hollywood movie.

In spite of the slow start to the book, the part where the South African policeman took advantage of the youthful Prudence was masterfully told, stretched out and full of telling details, making it feel like time was stretching, revealing the full horror. Immediately afterwards, the description of the bustling Joburg is equally well-drawn and immersive. That made the overly long introspective parts and the odd details annoying.

There were very many points in this book where I was pulled out of the story by details that didn’t seem right, from minor to major. Sourdough baguette in 1996 Joburg? Surely not! I spent a long time wondering why Prudence’s son was written as autistic until late in the book where Prudence is under stress and realises her son must often feel the same sense of panic.

This book had me rushing to the bookcase to read a short memoir by a real South African because, although it’s well-researched, there’s the odd fact that sounds wrong to me. Back in 1996, Prudence and Matshediso have a conversation about names for Black people and POC in the USA and in Apartheid South Africa. Prudence queries the SA categories.
“Sometimes ‘Black’ means Black African, but sometimes ’Black’ means Indian and Asian and Coloured. And what’s this ‘Coloured’ category anyway? In America, light-skinned Black folks are considered just Black.” Matshediso’s response is to make a joke; “The whites clearly needed a new category for their bastard children.”

I’m pretty sure that in 1996 SA, Coloured referred to Indians and Asians and anyone with mixed ancestry. Everybody else was either Black or White. Given race is such a hot potato, especially in the context of this book, that the author should have picked up on this.

Another thing that struck me as improbable was Prudence’s naivety in ignoring warnings not to wander around Johannesburg because there were no go areas. It’s not as if the same wasn’t true in the USA in 1996. And Joburg in 1996 would have been a scary place.

“Prudence realized that even her best memories featured the dead.”
Back in South Africa, Matshediso told her the best thing to do was to forget everything, it was the only way forward.

“Memories were dangerous things, grenades with shaky pins, much like how motherhood felt.”

I have the feeling the author was trying to indicate something by references to products,. However, this falls flat if you don’t know what that particular make signifies, for example, Bowers & Wilkins speakers; are they expensive?; if so, why are they in the basement?

A few questionable items
• The principal’s office is described as having ‘glass windows’. As opposed to what?
• Roland’s teacher is Mrs Stims, an odd choice by the author for a teacher of autistic children; stimming is repetitive behaviour used to help sooth emotions in uncomfortable situation, often used by neurodivergent people.
• Won’t Davis realise Prudence is lying about why she is away from home when she isn’t paid for her so-called consultancy project?

But forget the nitpicking; this is a thriller with an unusual background referring to the terrible apartheid period and its aftermath in South Africa and reflects the trauma that
is still echoing today.

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.

WOW.

This book will stay with me for a long time. It raises some of the most profound ethical questions in the face of extreme violence and systemic racism. When is it okay to get revenge? Are we all so alike or are there differences that allow for humans to commit extreme acts of horror and violence?

Taking the context of the Truth and Reconciliation Hearings in South Africa post-apartheid, the MC witnesses people recounting the acts of violence they’ve committed. (And, how does a nation heal and move after horrific events?)

She encounters a mysterious man who later… don’t want to give away anything. But she has an extremely traumatic experience (caused by a white police officer) and she’s forever linked to this man.

Jump to when she’s in DC, married, has a child. Suddenly this man reappears. (Can you tell I’m terrible at summarizing plots?) How violence links the two of them and at what cost to their own humanity is so well done. It’s harrowing. Horrific. Is there a sense of justice when you’re seeking revenge after years of oppression? Where is that line?

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishing company for this Advanced Readers Copy of Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis-Sharma!

This was a layered, riveting read told from the perspective of Prudence, a Black American woman, who was present for a time at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Amnesty hearings in Johannesburg in 1996. Harrowing testimonies of brutal human acts committed during the apartheid era were aired with a view towards reconciliation and moving forward. It was during this period in time that she meets Matsedisho, a man who came to her aid at a time of personal trauma, one she meets again many years later in Washington DC when he starts working at her husband’s company.

I really enjoyed this, though the premise did seem quite laboured to me initially. Though the hearings were an integral part of the story, it seemed quite convoluted at first to have the focus taken from it somewhat by amplifying the perspective of an outsider. I’m still not entirely sure about this choice but did think that the author maximised its potential and did take care with presenting testimonies heard directly. Once I came to grips with the fact that this was more a story of one woman’s awakening following what she witnessed and experienced during her time in South Africa, the story flowed more smoothly for me. The author also explains in a note at the end that this story was inspired by her own time living in Johannesburg in 1996 and bearing witness to some of the testimony given during the amnesty hearings.

The book explores multiple themes. Through her lens as a Black American woman, ideas around power and privilege, race and identity were explored. The assumptions she seemed to have that all skin folk were kinfolk were quickly and brutally corrected. She appeared to feel more belonging to her American-ness, her ease at centering herself here in South Africa, wielding power to those with less in a global context. At the same time, she could appreciate some commonalities when it came to police brutality and performing respectability politics, more so when she lives her life as wife and mother in Washington. Having to suppress one’s rage at racial injustice and misogynoir as a woman and mother doing her best to parent and protect her beloved child is agony.

Where it really works for me is its exploration of the lasting impacts of violent trauma, continuing conversations that had been on my mind about perfect victimhood, the cost of resistance, and the limits of love. What does it take to move forward. Is healing possible in the wake of violent trauma, what does that look like? Love binds us, and love can also set us free, but how far can love go? How much love is needed? Is forgiveness and reconciliation always possible in the face of truths so grievous one might not simply recover from them. In her author’s note, she writes of her hopes for South Africa’s future:
▫️”Though I was only in South Africa for a short period, I left there altered by what I saw and heard. Despite its growing pains, I watch this young democracy from afar with all the hope I had for it in 1996. I believe in its future and I hope you leave this book feeling the same.”
.
This reader did to a certain extent, but the lingering weight of its hangover is hard to shake. It’s sprawling and prickly and messy, there were sticking points and no clear resolutions, but as everything came together in the end, I did feel mostly optimistic, or at least that Gramscian pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will, thinking about these accounts of times then, and the realities reflected in societies there and elsewhere in times now. Ultimately, humans are humans, capable of being harmed and wielding violence in turn. I actively hope for a future where we can gather together in shared love and grief and live together as kin. Thank you so much @groveatlantic @netgalley for this copy, I was riveted!

Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis-Sharma is a tense and timely novel that delves into the monstrous legacy of South African apartheid. The story begins with the calculated killing of a white policeman in 1996 Johannesburg, setting the stage for a narrative that explores themes of revenge, justice, and the cost of violence.

The novel flashes forward to 2018 Washington, D.C., where we meet Prudence Wright and her husband, Davis. The Wrights appear to be a very happily married, wealthy, and successful couple. However, Prudence's guarded demeanor hints at a past filled with tragedy and trauma. The story takes a turn when Prudence encounters Matshediso, a South African man whose life intersected with hers two decades earlier during her law school internship in Johannesburg.

Francis-Sharma masterfully weaves together the past and present, revealing the shared history between Prudence, Matshediso, and the deceased policeman. The novel's atmosphere is thick with tension, and moments of surreal terror keep both Prudence and the reader perpetually on edge. The author shines a light on the human rights violations committed during the apartheid era, bringing readers into the courtrooms of South Africa's 1996 Truth and Reconciliation hearings.

The testimonies Prudence witnesses during these hearings are some of the most gripping passages in the book, exposing the atrocities committed and the complex question of what real accountability looks like. Despite the pain chronicled in its pages, the novel offers a shred of hope, suggesting that while the truth alone is not justice, there is still freedom in it.

Casualties of Truth is a tale of dual reckonings, of a woman and a country both forced to face their histories and the harrowing violence that has shaped them. Lauren Francis-Sharma has crafted a story that is both emotionally riveting and thought-provoking, leaving readers with a profound sense of empathy and a deeper understanding of the complexities of humanity.

CASUALTIES OF TRUTH by Lauren Francis-Sharma strikes the perfect balance between a riveting page-turning thriller and a fascinating glimpse into history - specifically the Truth and Reconciliation hearings that uncovered the atrocities of Apartheid in South Africa.

Taking place between Washington DC and Johannesburg, we follow Prudence Wright who, as a result of a seemingly chance encounter with her husband’s new work colleague over dinner, is thrown back to her time spent as a Harvard intern observing the hearings in South Africa a decade earlier and the post-apartheid fallout for its people. Over the course of the dinner it quickly becomes apparent to Prudence that the colleague entering their life is far from coincidental. She is forced to confront her past and grapple with how far she is willing to go to seek justice - cue the epic tension building and uncovering of long buried secrets!

I really love when a pace-y, addictive story is given some depth, like here where it’s told with considered and deftly crafted layers of history and politics. Infused with her firsthand experience observing the hearings, Francis-Sharma has also woven through subtle but unflinching thought-provoking commentary on race, revenge, who decides what amounts to justice and who is deserving of it, and the impact of the past on the present.

Such an incredible, suspenseful book that had me riveted from start to finish! Thanks to @netgalley and @groveatlantic for sharing a copy with me!

When Prudence goes to dinner at a high-end restaurant, she yearns for lighthearted conversation with her husband, his new colleague, and his colleague’s “Tinder girlfriend.” But when an unwelcome figure from her past is revealed as the guest of honor, Prudence suddenly has to prevent decades of repressed traumas from bubbling to the surface. This thrilling novel alternates between 2018 Washington, D.C., and 1996 Johannesburg. Prudence was a law student interning in South Africa when the country held its Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, the post-apartheid attempt to heal the nation through reparations rather than retaliation. But moving forward from gross human rights violations is easier said than done when it’s personal. Prudence now stands on a taut line of suspense to shield her husband from the truth about her past, protect her son, and heal her own inner turmoil. Lauren Francis-Sharma is the assistant director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference at Middlebury College.

Thank you netgalley for the ebook. This is a very intense and dark book. It should probably come with many trigger warnings including descriptions of torture and murder during the hearings in South Africa, as well as sexual assault and murder on the page.
It starts right off with a terrifying description of a man attacking the car of the protagonist after they accidentally hit his dog with the car. And then it continues on to go through the story in two timelines. I did figure out Mat's connection to the hearings pretty early on, but that didn't ruin the book at all. It still kept me disturbed and on the edge of my seat the whole time.

'Casualties of Truth' is the latest novel by the award-winning writer Lauren Francis-Sharma, in which she writes about how the abuses handed down by history never leave one in peace but remain as an unhealed wound. She had used her experiences in South Africa, attending the Truth and Reconciliation hearings, to weave a tale about two people who are struggling to make sense of a world in which the truth never helps to reconcile with the past. The novel explores the complexities of truth and how justice is subjective.

Mystery/thriller mixed with historical fiction, with a dash of female rage thrown in… YES!!!

This is a dual timeline story that takes place in 2018 Washington DC and 1996 Johannesburg. Once upon a time our main female character Prudence Wright, was a naive law student interning at a public sector law firm in Johannesburg, helping inmates file for amnesty. A quick stop into a petrol station one night turned into an experience that would haunt her for the next 20 years. Prudence is now a high powered attorney with a doting husband and a beautiful son, but a figure from her past is threatening to upend her entire life.

Born in South Africa, Matshediso (Mat) was adopted at a young age and raised in Belgium. His connection and passion for his original home has never dulled, nor has the hurt and trauma her experienced. He is now a heavily sought after tech genius whose path has put him on a collision course with Prudence.

Lauren Francis-Sharma has crafted a brilliant story of trauma, justice, reckoning, intrigue and reconciling with the truth. She was able to do SO much both thematically and conceptually in very few pages. This book is not long, but there is nothing lacking. Francis-Sharma weaved the two timelines together with the dexterity of a surgeon. She provided historical context for the 1996 timeline, as it centers the trials led by the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to determine if amnesty would be granted to those accused of human rights violations during apartheid. She effortlessly tied the actions of the past to current day concerns. She is able to capture the reader’s attention with edge of your seat intrigue and bring everything together with dynamic storytelling. It was a slow, deliberate, tension filled climb to a wild ride.

Lauren Francis-Sharma assumes us that sometimes the ends really do justify the means, and sometimes it is OK (preferable even) to own the rage inside.

This moves between 1996 and 2018 to tell Prudence's story- the story of her time in South Africa and her present in DC. It's also the story of Matshediso (Mat), who she meets while sitting in the Truth Commission hearings and who changes her life then-and now. This unfolds in a measured way to tell a shocking story. Prudence (has a character name ever been more....) and her husand Davis are living a good life she never expected except that their son Roland is neurodivergent but it's threatened when Mat turns up as the IT expert at the law firm where Davis works. Of course he wants something. It's this second encounter with Mat and his demand that felt quite implausible. She's got an intriguing back story that's parceled out over the course of the novel. The same is true for Mat. There are surprises here - no spoilers. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A thought provoking read.

I enjoyed this book! The dual timelines took a bit for me to get used to but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I recommend this book to people that like reading about complex characters and “human messiness.”

This dual timeline story follows Prudence’s past in Johannesburg, South Africa and her present in Washington, DC. Her past unexpectedly catches up with her and there is a delicious tension in the chapters that lead up to what exactly will be expected of her and what she will decide to do. It was difficult to read the dialogue from the Truth and Reconciliation hearings, but I appreciate the author shining a light on the topic.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

Prudence Wright has relegated her experiences as a law student in South Africa during the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation hearings to the basement of her house and off her mind. They come back to haunt her when a man from that past is hired by her husband’s law firm and he comes to her with a dangerous request she cannot refuse.
In this complex and well-crafted novel, Francis-Sharma grasps a coil of tension and stretches it taut and unyielding from the first scene all the way to the unsettling end.
Readers will think they know Prudence: a wealthy DC woman struggling to balance work, motherhood, and marriage, but Francis-Sharma untangles strand after strand of complexity until Prudence's humanity is stripped to its core, and we are left to face the fact that sometimes the difference between the hunter and the hunted is decided by the first choice we make when our families or livelihoods are threatened.
The story moves between present—in Washington D.C. and the past—the post-apartheid truth-and-reconciliation trials in South Africa in a way that is unrelentingly uncomfortable. It will make readers question whether the differences between these places and times are as stark as we expect them to be.

I wanted to love it as I was intrigued by the synopsis but the novel did not live up to my expectations. Might be for others but it was not for me.

Sometimes a book comes along with the ability to grab readers by the throat and not let go. Lauren Francis-Shama’s Casualties of Truth is that type of novel. Tense from its opening pages, built on complex and fraught historical events, and constantly asking difficult questions of its protagonist and its readers.
Casualties of Truth opens in 2018, Prudence Wright and her husband Davis are driving through a Washington DC hailstorm to attend a dinner with one of Davis’s new employees. Prudence and Davis are a successful, professional couple with a young son, Roland, who is on the autism spectrum. Prudence has left a very lucrative and successful career as a management consultant to raise Roland. The dinner itself is fraught, not least of which it raises for Prudence memories of a legal internship she did in South Africa over thirty years before, during the Truth and Reconciliation hearings. Following the dinner, the hearings themselves and a traumatic experience during her time in South Africa will come back to haunt her.
Casualties of Truth is a thriller in which the pressure only ever ratchets upwards. Prudence is caught between her desire to move away from the person she was thirty years before (as well as before that), and her deep understanding of what it is to want to avenge an injustice. The book takes readers into the horrors of the Apartheid era and asks them to consider what justice might look like. But in doing so Francis-Shama does not make things simple. Francis-Shama makes readers complicit and then guilty, riding the rollercoaster of emotions with Prudence as she is both cajoled, manipulated but also blackmailed into adopting a persona that sits just below the surface. Every character is compromised in some way, everything is a shade of grey.
Casualties of Truth explores historical injustices but also brings them forward into the present day and explores not only the ongoing legacy of Apartheid but the insidiousness of the racism that drove it and never goes away. But setting aside the history and the tension and the violence, Francis-Shama as also delivered an intensely human novel with a couple of believably flawed, driven characters at its centre. Casualties of Truth is the best kind of thriller – one that makes you think deeply even while rapidly turning the pages and one that refuses to let readers off the hook or give any easy answers.

**Features:**
- Dual timeline with the heart of the story unfolding in flashbacks
- Focuses on the Truth and Reconciliation Hearings and explores themes of justice and the moral ambiguities of revenge.
- Complex, morally gray characters dealing with the long-term consequences of past trauma

**Summary:**

Focused on her life in Washington D.C. with her husband and autistic son, Prudence Wright prefers to leave the demons of her past behind. But when one such demon named Matshediso shows up to a business dinner, she is immediately taken back to her life as an intern in a Johannesburg law firm. In her time as an intern, Prudence not only watched as the Truth and Reconciliation Hearings revealed the true horrors of Apartheid, but also experienced the outcry of a society hungry for retribution. Matshediso’s reappearance in Prudence’s life is no accident and threatens to reveal the personal experiences she has long kept secret. But what is Matshediso’s true aim?

**Thoughts:**

This book is not afraid to embrace the messiness of humanity and does a wonderful job exploring the complexities of justice and morality in the context of the Truth and Reconciliation Hearings held after Apartheid ended in South Africa. Though relatable, complicated, and realistic, the characters in this story aren’t very likeable. Francis-Sharma is not afraid to show the ways Prudence’s perspective is skewed by her naivety and relative privilege despite, or even because of, the ways she has struggled. It is a complicated web that is navigated extremely well and creates a very intriguing character. Her relationship with both her husband and autistic son are equally complicated and speaks to some darker truths about life in general. Matshediso immediately gave me the creeps and is equally complex in his actions and motives. Though wonderfully composed, these characters are intentionally uncomfortable and readers who desire to have a deep connection and/or root for a character might find this piece difficult to get into.

As someone who does not know much about Apartheid, I found the focus on the Truth and Reconciliation Hearings fascinating. Where a lot of historical fiction stays mired in the traumas of history, this one asks the question of what happens when society tries to move past them. It does not shy away from the dark and messy and nothing ever feels truly ‘resolved’. While I enjoy this book's ability to capture the true complexity of its themes, some readers might find it overwhelming or be disappointed with the lack of a clean resolution. The writing itself is well done and accessible though there are some ‘literary’ moments that can be a little unclear. Overall, I think this is an informative and challenging read that is well worth a try.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic Monthly Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!