Prudence Wright seems to have it all: 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.
BIO
Lauren Francis-Sharma is the author of Book of the Little Axe, a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the critically acclaimed novel ’Til the Well Runs Dry. She was a MacDowell fellow and is the Assistant Director of Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference at Middlebury College. She resides near Washington, DC, with her family.
REVIEWS
“Piercing and provocative . . . [Unsettles] simple notions of public and private justice, retribution, harm, and healing . . . The novel is underpinned by fierce and intelligent engagement with thorny questions, but it is also fueled by artful suspense . . . [Francis-Sharma] pushes her characters to the edge, where they must confront the moral costs of their darkest desires.” -- Nadia Owusu, Boston Globe
“Riveting . . . A gripping story which is difficult to put down and brings forgotten histories vividly to life.” -- Syma Mohammed, San Francisco Chronicle
“Thrillingly perceptive, Casualties of Truth is a reminder that no matter how much time passes, we can’t escape actions of our own or our country’s past.” -- Booklist (starred review)
“Thrilling . . . 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.” -- WBUR
“I could not put this down! Once again, Francis-Sharma’s phenomenal prose delivers; here, with exquisite suspense in a revenge story chocked full of thorny characters. This is an unforgiving tale of cat-and-mouse begging us to confront just how far we’d go to take control in a society hell-bent on minimizing our pain. These pages set loose the raging, wicked what-ifs we keep deeply and shamefully hidden inside our basements.” -- Xochitl Gonzalez, author of Olga Dies Dreaming and Anita de Monte Laughs Last
[H] Atlantic Monthly Press / February 11, 2025
1.18" H x 8.11" L x 5.51" W (0.8 lbs) 272 pages