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Chase Your Shadow

Chase Your Shadow

The Trials of Oscar Pistorius

by John Carlin
CD-Audio
Publication Date: 03/02/2015

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Oscar Pistorius was eleven months old when he had both legs amputated below the knee, due to congenital fibular disease. Despite this severe disability, Pistorious grew up to be an extraordinary athlete, inspirational role model, and global symbol of resilience. In 2012 he became the first amputee runner in history to compete in the Olympics and was hailed as a hero not only in his native South Africa but around the world.

Everything changed for Pistorius in the early morning hours of February 14, 2013--Valentine's Day--when he shot and killed his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, through a closed bathroom door, allegedly because he mistook her for an intruder intent on doing him harm. He was arrested and charged with premeditated murder, and overnight, the public's view of Pistorius turned on its head.

Not since the O. J. Simpson case has a courtroom drama riveted global attention on one man's fate. Acclaimed journalist John Carlin's vivid firsthand account of Pistorius's seven-month murder trial, broadcast worldwide from Johannesburg, details the wrenching emotional breakdowns and merciless interrogation of the accused on and off the stand, the fraught relationship between the Pistorius and Steenkamp families, and the highly controversial verdict of culpable homicide, for which Pistorius received a five-year sentence.

But Chase Your Shadow is far more than just a sensational crime story, as Carlin shows through meticulous reporting and extensive access to Pistorius and his family and friends. This courtroom confrontation between a white, privileged, twenty-seven-year-old male athlete on trial for murder and the black female judge who alone would decide his fate--held in a democratic country trying to exorcise its history of racial hatred and endemic violence against women--exposes the complex social and political realities of post-Apartheid South Africa.
ISBN:
9781481532884
9781481532884
Category:
Biography: sport
Format:
CD-Audio
Publication Date:
03-02-2015
Publisher:
HarperCollins
Country of origin:
United States
Dimensions (mm):
168x155x33mm
Weight:
0.34kg
John Carlin

British journalist John Carlin is the author of Knowing Mandela and Playing the Enemy, which became the Clint Eastwood film Invictus with Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. He is also the author of Chase Your Shadow: The Trials of Oscar Pistorius; Rafa: My Story, with Raphael Nadal; and White Angels: Beckham, Real Madrid, and the New Football.

John Carlin was South Africa bureau chief for the Independent from 1989 to 1995. In a 1998 interview, Nelson Mandela said of Carlin's journalism: "What you wrote and the way in which you carried out your task in this country was absolutely magnificent...it was absolutely inspiring.

You have been very courageous, saying things which many journalists would never say." Carlin has also written for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Times of London, Financial Times, Toronto Star, El Pais, Daily Telegraph, Observer; New Statesman, Wired, Spin, Conde Nast Traveler, Punch, New Statesman, New Republic, Time, and has reported for BBC, ABC, PBS, and CBS. Oriol Malet, a professional illustrator and musician, trained at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona. His work has appeared in La Vanguardia, Jot Down, and Time Out.

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