Show Me the Place

If you’ve never considered the essay to be a form of creative writing, Show Me the Place will change your mind. The nine lyrical, eloquent pieces collected here are anything but “dry” or “academic”, and they cover a broad range of topics. “A Line of Light” explores grief due to an especially wrenching loss of a parent, and considers the workings of memory; “Offshore” is about learning to surf in your thirties; and several pieces examine utopias and the recurring human impulse to create an ideal community. The most diverting essay of all covers the author’s years-long attempts to discover who carved the nose off the bronze bust of Cecil John Rhodes at the latter’s Cape Town memorial in 2015 – a story about the everyday strangeness of people and places that is wry, enlightening, and perfectly formed.