‘It is fortuitous that the epigraph in Barry Gilder’s novel, The List,
is taken from TS Eliot, the poet who once observed that the people
couldn’t bear very much reality. Gilder has done wonders with his
story. While majorly set in a dystopian future, the narrative weaves
in and out of the reality of our blasphemed past and alerts us to
the fact that what we have not addressed will certainly rise up to
menace us, if not us, then certainly our children and their progeny.
His evocation of the hidden world of espionage and manipulation,
heroism and cravenness, double-dealing and integrity, ingredients
baked in with the bitter bread of the New South Africa, has given
us memorable characters. It will be difficult – after reading this
book – to encounter an individual on the street and not imagine
the journeys he or she must have taken towards the making or
the unmaking of our fair democracy. It’s a must-read.’
– MANDLA LANGA