The 1990s saw significant political changes in countries like South African or Northern Ireland. Prior to the revolutionary transformation, the structure of those societies was marked by a rigid bipolar configuration. However, after the political watersheds, what could be observed in the public domain was a turn towards reconciliation. Regardless of its traumatic character, the past was to yield to ‘prospect for the future’. It quickly transpired, however, that the key to deconstruct- ing the walls dividing the societies lay nowhere else but in the past. And it was the local literary field where a discussion on the weight of remembering what has seemingly come to an end was initiated. This paper tries to illustrate that debate by a comparative analysis of two novels represen- tative of the respective cultural contexts: Playing in the Light (2006) by Z. Wicomb and Where They Were Missed (2006) by L. Caldwell.