MOFFIE - ANDRE CARL VAN DER MERWE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Moffie - Andre Carl van der Merwe - Penstock - 2007, reprint - 314pp - Hard softcover. From a very young age Nicholas van der Swart realises he is different. Try as he may, he cannot live up to the macho image expected of him by his family, by his heritage.   At the age of 19 he is conscripted into the South African army and finds his every sensibility offended by a system close to its demise, and yet still in full force.   Author André Carl van der Merwe transports the reader into this young man’s world with evocative realism - sometimes heart-rending, sometimes with humour, always with brush strokes of hope.   This is a long overdue story about the emotional and physical suffering endured by countless young men.