Preorder: Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis-Sharma

From the author of Book of the Little Axe, nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, a riveting literary novel with the sharp edges of a thriller about the abuses of history and the costs of revenge, set between Washington, DC, and Johannesburg, South Africa Prudence Wright seems to have it a loving husband, Davis; a spacious home in Washington, DC; and the past 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, which uncovered the many horrors and human rights abuses of the Apartheid state, and which fundamentally shaped her sense of righteousness and justice. But Prudence experienced personal horrors in South Africa as well, ones she long resolved to keep carefully hidden and ones which Matshediso threatens now to expose. 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 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. -- Books will be available for pick up on March 22nd at the Orange County Library (Downtown location). If not available on March 22nd, Authentic Books will contact you to arrange alternate pick up date.