First published 2025
Prudence Wright has built a comfortable life in Washington, DC with her husband Davis and autistic son Roland. Her days revolve around Roland's care, supported by her former McKinsey consulting success. On a stormy summer evening, she and Davis meet one of his new colleagues for dinner. The colleague turns out to be Matshediso, a man from Prudence's past who immediately transports her back to 1996 South Africa. As a law student intern in Johannesburg, Prudence witnessed Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings that exposed apartheid's brutalities. These sessions shaped her understanding of justice, but Prudence also endured personal trauma during those months that she has kept hidden. Matshediso threatens to expose these buried secrets. When he reveals why he has reappeared in her life, Prudence must confront her deepest convictions and find strength she didn't know she possessed. The encounter forces her to grapple with whether anyone can truly escape their past.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, adult, adult-fiction, psychological-thriller, 21st-century
Vibes: emotionally-complex, intimate, introspective, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-confrontation, hidden-secrets-revealed, past-comes-back-to-haunt
Setting: Washington, DC, South Africa, Johannesburg
Period: 1996, contemporary
288 pages · Paperback · Grove Press
Content warnings: abuse