Blacklaws, Troy. Karoo Boy, A Novel.

BLACKLAWS, Troy. Karoo Boy, a novel. Harcourt, Harvest. 196p. c2004. 0-15-603065-9. $13.00. JSA 

Cape Town, South Africa in the 1970s is a place and time of turmoil, racial unrest, and general unease as the culture and government are challenged by the underclass and the system of apartheid is falling apart. In the midst of the larger disruptions, a family's life is also fragmented by a freak accident that kills the twin brother of the hero of the book, Douglas, and results in his father leaving. Douglas's mother decides to move out to the Karoo backwaters of the country, buys a house sight unseen and vanishes into her painting career, leaving Douglas pretty much on his own. As a city kid in a rural school, he finds fitting in difficult. Finally he makes two friends--one a beautiful classmate who has her own problems with her father and the other an old gold miner, now working as a garage mechanic, with dreams of going to Cape Town.

The use of language and dialect is excellent in this short novel, which both young people and their parents would enjoy. Reading this story together will lead to many interesting discussions about prejudice, governments, history and the universal issues of coming-of-age. Nola Theiss, Sanibel, FL