Oscar Pistorius was eleven weeks old when he had both hip and legs amputated below the leg, due to congenital fibular disease. Not surprisingly severe impairment, Pistorious was raised to be a fantastic athlete, inspirational part model, and global mark of resilience. In 2012 he became the initial amputee runner in history to compete in the Olympics and was hailed being a hero not merely in his native South Africa but around the world.

Everything changed for Pistorius in the early early morning of February 1 about Run after Your Shadow: The Tests of Oscar Pistorius 4, 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 objective on carrying out him damage. He was arrested and billed with premeditated murder, and over night, the public’s watch of Pistorius turned on its head.

Not since the O. J. Simpson case has a courtroom crisis riveted global interest on one man’s fate. Acclaimed journalist John Carlin’s brilliant firsthand account of Pistorius’s seven-month murder trial, broadcast worldwide from Johannesburg, information the wrenching emotional breakdowns and merciless interrogation from the accused on and off the stand, the fraught romantic relationship between the Pistorius and Steenkamp households, and the extremely controversial verdict of culpable homicide, for which Pistorius received a five-year sentence.

But Chase Your Shadow is a lot more than just a sensational criminal offense story, as Carlin shows through meticulous reporting and extensive access to Pistorius and his relatives and buddies. This courtroom confrontation between a white, privileged, twenty-seven-year-old male athlete on trial for murder as well as the dark female judge who by itself would determine his fate-held within a democratic nation endeavoring to exorcise its history of racial hatred and endemic violence against women-exposes the complicated social and political realities of post-Apartheid South Africa.