Audio only
We Are Not Such Things
The Murder of a Young American, a South African Township, and the Search for Truth and ReconciliationBy Justine van der LeunNarrated by Erin BennettLength19h 17m
About this audiobook
Justine van der Leun reopens the murder of a young American woman in South Africa, an iconic case that calls into question our understanding of truth and reconciliation, loyalty, justice, race, and class.
The story of Amy Biehl is well known in South Africa. The twenty-six-year-old white American Fulbright scholar was brutally murdered on August 25, 1993, during the final, fiery days of apartheid by a mob of young black men in a township outside Cape Town. Her parents’ forgiveness of two of her killers became a symbol of the truth and reconciliation process in South Africa. Justine van der Leun decided to introduce the story to an American audience. But as she delved into the case, the prevailing narrative started to unravel. Why didn’t the eyewitness reports agree on who killed Amy Biehl? Were the men convicted of the murder actually responsible for her death? And then Van der Leun discovered another brutal crime committed on the same day, in the very same area. The true story of Amy Biehl’s death, it turned out, was not only a story of forgiveness but also a reflection of the complicated history of a troubled country.
We Are Not Such Things is the result of Van der Leun’s four-year investigation into this strange, knotted tale of injustice, violence, and compassion. The bizarre twists and turns of this case and its aftermath—and the story that emerges of what happened on that fateful day in 1993 and in the decades that followed—come together in an unsparing account of life in South Africa today. Van der Leun immerses herself in the lives of her subjects and paints a stark, moving portrait of a township and its residents. We come to understand that the issues at the heart of her investigation are universal in scope and powerful in resonance.
We Are Not Such Things reveals how reconciliation is impossible without an acknowledgment of the past, a lesson as relevant to America today as to a South Africa still struggling with the long shadow of its history.
Audiobook details
GenreHistory, True Crime, Psychology
Length19 hrs 17 mins
Narrated byErin Bennett
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateAug 9, 2016
LanguageEnglish
The Two Swords of ChristRaymond Ibrahim15h 55m$30
Black AF HistoryMichael Harriot15h 43m5 (1)$33 · $0.00
The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn21h 56m$46 · $0.00
The Redeemer’s ReturnArthur W. Pink13h 18m$20
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m$40 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m$20 · $0.00
Frederick Douglass: All 3 Memoirs in One VolumeFrederick Douglass44h 9m$2 · $0.00
The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America (Annotated)Howard Irving Chapelle, Tappan Adney13h 10m$2 · $0.00
I've Been to the MountaintopMartin Luther King48m5 (1)$11 · $0.00
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal11h 23m$29 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m$29 · $0.00
Saving My EnemyBob Welch9h 11m$20
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m$33 · $0.00
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin2h 25m$15
How to Escape from PrisonPaul Wood10h 29m$29 · $0.00
A Thousand Miles From Care: A hunt for a brother's killer - a new compelling Australian true crime story about murder & corruption, WINNER of the Ned Kelly Awards Best True Crime 2025Steve Johnson10h 14m$29 · $0.00
Killer TriggersJoe Kenda8h 31m$20 · $0.00
BoundlessNick Kostov, Sean McLain9h 17m$29 · $0.00
Nine LivesAimen Dean15h 23m$23
Deadly ForceLawrence O'Donnell17h 18m$40 · $0.00
Walking the BowlChris Lockhart, Daniel Mulilo Chama9h 7m$29 · $0.00
Trial by FireScott James13h 31m$23
PapillonHenri Charriere18h 19m$40 · $0.00
The SuspectKent Alexander, Kevin Salwen14h 12m$23 · $0.00
The Cause of DeathCynric Temple-Camp8h 59m$29 · $0.00
GanglandJared Savage9h 21m$29 · $0.00
Riding with EvilKen Croke, Dave Wedge9h 42m$29 · $0.00
Raven 23Gina Keating8h 16m$26 · $0.00
The Two FBIsNicole Parker10h 8m$29 · $0.00
I Catch KillersGary Jubelin15h 32m$33 · $0.00
The Redemption Of Bobby LoveBobby Love, Cheryl Love9h 13m$29 · $0.00
The Life We ChoseMatt Birkbeck8h 57m$29 · $0.00
The Truth About AaronJonathan Hernandez5h 15m$24 · $0.00
No Ordinary BirdArtis Henderson6h 23m$24 · $0.00
Black AF HistoryMichael Harriot15h 43m5 (1)$33 · $0.00
Bad Fat Black GirlSesali Bowen6h 32m$24 · $0.00
Finding Your VoiceMannette Morgan8h 10m$20
Invisible StormJason Kander6h 48m$24 · $0.00
I've Been to the MountaintopMartin Luther King48m5 (1)$11 · $0.00
AretéBrian Johnson19h 57m$35
Ullathin KuralPrem Rawat8h 17m$18 · $0.00
Vax FactsPaul Thomas MD, Deedee Hoover10h 26m$25
I Am The StormJanice Dean9h$8 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m$29 · $0.00
TerraformPropaganda5h 39m$24 · $0.00
Hour of the HeartIrvin D. Yalom, Benjamin Yalom8h 19m5 (1)$26 · $0.00
The Thomas Sowell ReaderThomas Sowell14h 51m$25
So You Want to Talk about RaceIjeoma Oluo7h 41m$17
Braving the TruthRachel Held Evans11h 31m$29 · $0.00
Level UpRob Dial7h 42m$26 · $0.00
As a JewSarah Hurwitz8h 36m$26 · $0.00
Burn the HaystackJennie Young, PhD9h 30m$29 · $0.00
Woman and the New Race (Annotated)Margaret Sanger6h 30m$2 · $0.00
Good InsideBecky Kennedy9h 55m$29 · $0.00
You may also like
Masterworks of 19th-Century Russia – 3 Classic Russian Moral NovelsLeo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky64h 16m$2
Hush MoneyMax Allan Collins4h 51m$15
The Complex | Award-winning author of The Association of Small Bombs returns with a new novelKaran Mahajan15h 25m$26 · $0.00
Baron Trigault's VengeanceEmile Gaboriau12h 7m$2 · $0.00
Seth's Brother's Wife: A Study of Life in the Greater New YorkHarold Frederic10h 43m$2 · $0.00
No One You KnowMichelle Richmond9h 22m$20 · $0.00
Fatherhood, and Other StoriesThomas H. Cook4h 46m$22
HermannE. Werner3h 32m$2 · $0.00
The Red MouseWilliam Hamilton Osborne7h 27m$2 · $0.00
Little White LiesMargaret Fenton5h 9m$22 · $0.00
Before ChappaquiddickWilliam C. Kashatus6h 2m$17 · $0.00
My Flawless LifeYvonne Woon8h 9m$26 · $0.00
In This RainS. J. Rozan14h 20m$30 · $0.00
Day of VengeanceJeanne M. Dams9h 21m$20
Evidence of Things SeenSarah Weinman7h 32m$26 · $0.00
The Crime DoctorE. W. Hornung6h 40m$2.30
After That NightKarin Slaughter16h 35m$25
Threads gathered up : A sequel to "Virgie's Inheritance"Georgie Mrs. Sheldon7h 11m$1 · $0.00
Beyond the TruthBruce Robert Coffin11h 8m$29 · $0.00
Lost LakePhillip Margolin5h 34m$24 · $0.00