MOTHER TO MOTHER (1998) is fiction, but there is no denying it is based on a real event, the murder of American Fulbright scholar, Amy Elizabeth Biehl, on 25 August 1993.

When that horrific event happened, I was not even in South Africa. I was in New York, USA, where I was working for the United Nations Organization, in the Department of Public Information (DPI). The tragic news spread internationally. That very same day, it reached us in New York. I didn't suddenly exclaim: Ah! There's a novel for me to write. In fact, I did not start writing Mother to Mother until 1996 – three full years after the event.

However, I was terribly saddened and felt deeply for the Biehl family, people I had no reason to believe I would ever meet. This is a typical response upon hearing sad news like this. When incidents such as these happen, how many of us do more than feel sorry for the families of the victims?

Eight months after Amy's murder, in April 1994, I was in South Africa to witness the miracle of the first democratic elections in the country. On the evening of my departure, Lindiwe Madikwa, a friend from primary-school days, drove me to the airport. That was before the ‘Drop and Go’ of today, when you could still drive your friend to the airport, go in and watch them check in, and, time permitting, have a bite in one of the cafés. Lindiwe and I did precisely that. She being a stickler for punctuality, I was a whole mile and a half early for my flight.

Over coffee we chatted about this and that, went over the miraculous happenings in the country, the ‘everybody’ elections no one had ever dreamed they would see.