THE INVISIBLE BOY FROM BRAMBLE WAY

299pp., colour illus., paperback, Southern Right Publishers, Cape Town, 2025

ISBN: 9781037073915

Foreword by Marianne Thamm.

In his memoir Anwar Mc Kay (b. 1974) discusses growing up in Bonteheuwel, his experiences of bullying and isolation, the intense anxiety he suffered for most of his life, his relationship and marriage to comedian Marc Lottering, and the relief he has found through therapy and medication.

"Set against the backdrop of an unequal society in Cape Town, this poignant memoir tells the story of a boy whose difference became his danger. In a world that offered no figure for 'otherness', Anwar Mc Kay learnt to vanish into the shadows ... a powerful account of erasure, endurance and finally, emergence and love!" Redi Tlhabi, author of Endings and Beginnings, a story of healing

"Anwar Mc Kay has written a beautiful and gripping book on the complex topic of growing up in Apartheid South Africa as a marginalised Coloured, gay, young man - his sexual orientation, his mental health struggles, a disrupted family and abandonment by his father. All within a political system that denied him basic human rights, support and safety. Instead, the system traumatised him. However, this is a love story: between a mother and a child, and of a man, Marc, who provided the safety and security for Anwar to heal. This book will give hope to anyone who perseveres in the aftermath of political or personal trauma. ” Dr Marlene Wasserman, trauma specialist

Anwar Mc Kay works as a theatre producer and director. He lives with Marc Lottering in Cape Town.