Shadow Chaser: Oscar a mosaic of ambiguities

Neither Shakespeare nor Homer could come up with a better plot than the story of Oscar Pistorius - the hero who triumphs against all odds, but who is ultimately crippled by his flaws. And his epic story is just the kind that appeals to British journalist and author John Carlin.

''Oscar is everything in extremes," says Carlin. ''He has conflicting human qualities multiplied to a hundred. In his sporting persona he is an astonishingly talented and driven person. There is no story in the history of sport like his."

Carlin - who wrote the book Playing The Enemy, on which the movie Invictus was based - has been in South Africa since shortly after Reeva Steenkamp was killed doing research for his book Chase Your Shadow: The Trials of Oscar Pistorius.

''My 'holy grail' was getting a personal interview with Oscar," says Carlin.

"Through a long, patient and persistent exercise I finally got it. I started by attacking the outer circles of the barricade, people that Oscar knew well, living in far-flung places - I went to Texas to see Francois van der Watt, the first man to fit Pistorius with running blades. I went to Iceland to visit Össur, the world leader in prosthetics, which makes Pistorius's Cheetah running blades. I went to Italy to meet the lawyer who overturned the ban on his running in able-bodied races and I went to the little town of Gemona, Italy, where he spent his summers training.

''I was scavenging, which is what we do as journalists, always alert to what I could pick up, following leads and meeting those close to him. I picked up, bit by bit, tiny pieces like a mosaic."

Eventually word got back to the family that Carlin was doing an honest job researching Pistorius's life and uncle Arnold Pistorius agreed to see him.

''The first meeting with Arnold was an interview to see whether I would get to the next stage," says Carlin. ''I passed - while I was talking to Arnold, Oscar walked in and escorted me to his cottage. The first thing I noticed was the huge black-and-white image of Reeva hanging like an effigy on the bedroom wall."

Carlin says Pistorius was sombre at first, but after a while his countenance changed and he invited the author to lunch.

"Oscar drove us to a restaurant in Pretoria, where he was chatty and light-hearted, and had a good rapport with the staff. I experienced first hand the many extremes of Oscar's personality."

Anything you write is always an approximation of the truth, says Carlin. ''Before the trial Oscar was an unalloyed hero. The public and the media selected the evidence to embellish the image of the hero. After the trial, the opposite happened. The public wanted a villain and the media, who know their clientele, selected the evidence to portray him as an unalloyed villain."

Ultimately, Carlin sees Pistorius as a mirror of the country.

''Pistorius, with his multiple personalities and ambiguous nature, reflects South Africa now. You can select the evidence to reflect South Africa as a completely failed state, or you can see it as having done incredibly well, a beacon of progressive forgiveness and multiculturism. The truth, if we're honest about it, is that it's all kinds of different things. It's very good and very bad. Ditto Oscar. The country has also triumphed over a crippling history. We're all waiting to see what happens next."