Denis Hirson has lived in France since 1975, yet has remained true to the title of one of his prose poems, "The long distance South African." Most of his books, both poetry and prose, are concerned with the memory of the apartheid years in South Africa. Two of his previous titles, The House Next Door to Africa and I Remember King Kong (the Boxer) were South African bestsellers. Following the release from prison of his father, who had served a nine-year sentence for sabotage as a member of the African Resistance Movement, Denis's family left South Africa in 1973 when he was 22. His family had been given three days to pack up their home in Johannesburg and leave by ship from Cape Town.