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.”
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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!

Absolutely loved this read and this historical context. The story and characters were so captivating, it was hard to put this one down. The ending kept my mind racing, and I was itching to figure out how this story would end. 10/10!

i had no idea what this was going to be, but it turned out to be absolutely amazing. loved it. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

ARC Review Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis-Sharma
Pub date: Feb 10,2025

This novel traverses between Johannesburg in 1996 during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Hearings and Washington in 2018. Prudence is in Johannesburg for a law internship and has the opportunity to attend the hearings. Although aware of the atrocities of apartheid, being present for the testimony, in the presence of the victims families makes the horrifying organized genocidal atrocities real. There she meets Matshediso who despite his coldness she somehow feels a connection to. Perhaps a shared history of childhood loss of fathers and siblings and mothers unable to continue mothering.

Matshediso comes to her rescue furthering this odd connection. Their lives unexpectedly cross again in Washington when he is hired as an IT expert in her husbands firm. Prudence thought she had firmly put those memories behind her but his unexpected return to her life and asking her to repay the past favor throws her life into turmoil.

This novel had so many twists and unexpected turns that I was constantly being surprised. The twist at the end had me gasping out loud to my husbands dismay.

This was an emotionally riveting novel that coupled the atrocities of apartheid with childhood violence, trauma and traumatic loss. The inclusion of inspiring quotes by Tutu, Malcolm X and Mandela at the beginning of each chapter provided a sense of hope contrasting with the sense of helplessness contained within the chapters.

The comparisons between the difference of blackness in America vs South Africa was an interesting added dimension that was enlightening.

This was a fast paced, entertaining novel exploring the complexities of humanity and the potential for violence within all of us.

I recieved an ARC of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.

Told in a dual timeline, South Africa 1996 and Washington D.C, 2018 we follow Prudence, a promising Law Student interning at South Africa, attending the Truth and Reconcilliation Hearings after the fall of the Apartheid Regime and as stay at home mother of a son on the autistic spectrum. She has abandoned her high flying career for that, and sometimes resents her husband for not acknowledging all she does and has done for his career.

Anyway, the past is coming after her, when Prudence's husband has recruited someone for an IT position. He's the best in his field - so good in fact with cuber security that it's no coincidence that this Matshediso is in fact someone Prudence knows from her days in South Africa.

A thriller then, of sorts.

For the world I couldn't like the characters, maybe because Prudence was oh so American-abroad in South Africa (which probably should win the author accolades for accuracy) and son & husband left little to love. The relationship between Prudence and her husband David, from the outside a power couple, is strained, and exists mostly of discussions not had.
That leaves the very unlikeable Matshediso, the antagonist - but is he the villain, or -like Prudence- a consequence of what happened? And does that matter?

The story flowed well and the characters were well developed. I recommend this book and look forward to more from this author.


****Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review****