Questions
What readers askmost often.
- Is everything in the memoir true?
- It is a memoir, not a transcript. Events are recounted as the author remembers them, and the book is explicit about the unreliability of remembering. In some instances names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.
- Why this title?
- The book's argument is that the shadow is only evidence — what matters is the absence that casts it. What Light Cannot Touch names the part of a life that no account, official or personal, manages to illuminate.
- How long did the book take to write?
- The material accumulated over three decades. The manuscript itself was written and rewritten across several years, with the Prologue among the last sections to find its final form.
- Where does the memoir begin?
- A yard in Kuruman, the Northern Cape, in 1994 — a child raising his hand into the afternoon light and finding the wrong shadow answering.
- Is there a companion volume planned?
- There is further writing underway. Announcements are made first to Dispatch subscribers.
- Can I read part of it before buying?
- Yes. The opening of the Prologue is published in full on this site, in a distraction-free reading view with a print-friendly mode.
The Dispatch
Occasional letters on power, memory and the record.
New essays, publication news and speaking dates. Sent rarely, never shared.