"This vivid and moving book will help shape the emerging form of truth commissions in many places around the world."--James Boyd White, author of The Edge of Meaning

Following periods of mass atrocity and oppression, states are faced with a question of critical importance in the transition to democracy: how to offer redress to victims of the old regime without perpetuating cycles of revenge. Traditionally, balance has been restored through arrests, trials, and punishment, but in the last three decades, more than twenty countries have opted to have a truth commission investigate the crimes of the prior regime and publish a report about the investigation, often incorporating accounts from victims. Although many praise the work of truth commissions for empowering and healing through words rather than violence, some condemn the practice as a poor substitute for traditional justice, achieved through trials and punishment. There has been until now little analysis of the unarticulated claim that underlies the truth commissions' very existence: that language—in this case narrative stories—can substitute for violence. Acknowledging revenge as a real and deep human need, Shattered Voices explores the benefits and problems inherent when a fragile country seeks to heal its victims without risking its own future. In developing a theory about the role of language in retribution, Teresa Godwin Phelps takes an interdisciplinary approach, delving into sources from Greek tragedy to Hamlet, from Kant to contemporary theories about retribution, from the Babylonian law codes to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Report. She argues that, given the historical and psychological evidence about revenge, starting afresh by drawing a bright line between past crimes and a new government is both unrealistic and unwise. When grievous harm happens, a rebalancing is bound to occur, whether it is orderly and lawful or disorderly and unlawful. Shattered Voices contends that language is requisite to any adequate balancing, and that a solution is viable only if it provides an atmosphere in which storytelling and subsequent dialogue can flourish. In the developing culture of ubiquitous truth reports, Phelps argues that we must become attentive to the form these reports take—the narrative structure, the use of victims' stories, and the way a political message is conveyed to the citizens of the emerging democracy. By looking concretely at the work and responsibilities of truth commissions, Shattered Voices offers an important and thoughtful analysis of the efficacy of the ways human rights abuses are addressed.

When something happens that shatters a life beyond recognition, what becomes of the soul? Trapped in a gilded cage for as long as she can remember, Hannah has tried to escape numerous times, in countless ways. She's been told all along that there's something wrong with her, something that her doctors can't diagnose. But what is life without freedom? Hannah would rather die than stay imprisoned forever. Another escape, once more the door slams shut with her locked behind it. Then Trevor offers her a way out, one that might actually mean permanent liberation for her. But at what cost? Trevor doesn't know the truth about her. Despite her fear that he'll be like all the others and turn away from her in horror, she longs to share her secret with him. Trevor has worked hard to make up for all the mistakes he's made in his life. Helping Hannah feels like the right thing to do – more than anything else he's ever done. But, to free her, the risks he takes asks more of him than he thought possible. After all, enemies aren't only outside in the world. Some are inside us… we just don’t know it…

In April 1998, Debra Puglisi Sharp -- wife, nurse, and mother of teenage twins -- was tending the roses in her garden when a factory worker with a cocaine habit slipped in through an open door and waited for her to come in. Nino, her husband of twenty-five years, got in the way and was shot. The man then attacked and raped Debra, placed her in the trunk of his car, and drove away. Kept hog-tied in her abductor's house, Debra finally learned of her husband's murder from a newscast on a radio that the man blared to muffle her screams while he was out. After five excruciating days, Debra's mounting rage at her captor -- and the wrenching thought of her children burying their father alone -- gave her the courage and strength she desperately needed. She loosened her ties, groped her way to the phone...and dialed 911. Shattered is an indelible portrait of hope, determination, and the agonizing journey back to life. Struggling to heal from her horrendous ordeal and the devastating loss of her husband, Debra also had to endure an agonizing court trial, the raw grief of her children, and her own crippling fear. But through her work in hospice care and as an advocate for victims of violence and trauma, she has slowly discovered the measure of her own strength. A compelling survival story -- tragic and ultimately heroic -- Shattered represents one woman's attempts to make sense of a senseless crime.

Where there is darkness, there isn't always light… Dayna Harris thought her problems began in her bedroom. More specifically in her bed, the bed she'd shared with her husband, Richard, for twenty-six years. The bed where she witnessed Richard cheating on her with a woman half his age. But maybe they really began in the motel room that day. What conjured the dark figure Dayna first glimpsed in the motel mirror? The dark figure that continues to haunt her as her marriage to Richard crumbles. Consumed by Richard’s infidelity, Dayna begins unravelling his lies revealing a husband she never knew. Now, psychologically imprisoned by a manipulative and dangerous husband, can Dayna find the courage to leave, and can she discover if the very real shadow that torments her is a figment of her imagination or something more sinister? In this edgy paranormal psychological thriller, author J.M. White takes us into the realms of the unknown, lives that are built on lies, forces we can’t always explain and the emotional torture of domestic abuse. It shows one woman’s search for light in the darkness.