We Are Not Such Things: Murder. Justice. The Search for Truth.
A ‘MAKING A MURDERER’ set in South Africa – a gripping true-crime story of murder and the justice system in the shadow of apartheid
In 1993 a young white American activist called Amy Biehl was brutally murdered by a group of men in a township near Cape Town. A few years later, two of the convicted murderers were working with Amy’s parents at a charity set up in her memory.
After the horrors of apartheid, hope and reconciliation had triumphed.
It’s an inspiring story. But is it just that – a story?
‘Your next true-crime obsession’ Vogue
‘A Truman Capote-style detective story’ Financial Times
‘Gripping, explosive . . . crafts a close sense of place that rivals the work of Katherine Boo’ New York Times
”'Gripping, explosive . . . crafts a close sense of place that rivals the work of Katherine Boo” - New York Times
”'Beautifully written and carefully observed … a Truman Capote-style detective story in which Van der Leun rummages for clues through the detritus of modern South Africa” - Financial Times
”'A total page-turner, a gripping Serial-like true-crime story” - Vogue
”'Deeply researched and thought-provoking . . . an engaging take on a murder that might have derailed democracy” - Economist
'Unforgettable. A gripping narrative that examines the messiness of truth, the illusory nature of reconciliation, the all too often false promise of justice' Boston Globe -
”'Extraordinary. A dense and nuanced portrait of a country whose confounding, convoluted past is never quite history” - Entertainment Weekly
”'Moving . . . necessary . . . A story of frustrated expectations, broken dreams, endemic greed and corruption, but also indomitable human spirit” - Minneapolis Star Tribune
”'A murder story told with the dramatic tension of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and the precision of the very best non-fiction reporting. Each page bursts with fresh insights” - Barbara Demick, author of Nothing to Envy
”'Fascinating. Shatters convenient narratives about the end of apartheid and the nature of justice, and takes readers on a headlong chase for deeper truths” - Jill Leovy, author of Ghettoside
”'A book I kept returning to. Van der Leun has a compassionate but admirably clear eye” - Michela Wrong, Spectator Books of the Year