South Africa

André Carl van der Merwe

André Carl van der Merwe was born in Harrismith in the Free State, South Africa. When his family moved to Cape Town, after two years of national service, he started studying fine art in Cape Town and later founded a clothing company, which he owned and ran for the next fifteen years. Today he concentrates on architectural and interior design and writing.

Full list >

Latest reviews

MOFFIE is a beautifully written book about a gay man in the South African army. The novel focuses on Nicholas, a young man forced to fight in the Angolan Bush War. The shocking homophobia of the army makes life hard as he must hide his true identity from those around him.

— Feb 7 2013

Moffie, by Andre Carl van der Merwe. Europa Editions, 368 pages, $15 paper. Bookmark by Richard Labonte Young Nicholas Van der Swart, already scorned by his strict Afrikaans father as a moffie – a gay sissy – is an unhappy conscript into South...

— Oct 17 2011

I am not sure how I discovered the novel Moffie but I am sure glad I did. I downloaded it to my Kindle and fell in love with the writing and the emotion behind the story. Written by South African André Carl van der Merwe it tells the harrowing tale of what it was like...

— Oct 6 2011

‘Moffie’ by Andre Carl van der Merwe by ALAN CHIN on AUGUST 30, 2011 in FICTION, REVIEWS Like every gay boy in 1970s South Africa, Nicholas van der Swart must hide that part of himself that is different from other boys, especially from his...

— Aug 30 2011

Moffie by Andre Carl Van Der Merwe (Europa Editions, $15 trade paper, 9781609450502, August 30, 2011) Nicholas van der Swart is 19 years old when he's drafted into the Apartheid-era South African army to serve his two years' mandatory military service. So was Andre...

— Aug 29 2011

font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }@font-face { font-family: "Garamond Premr Pro"; }@font-face { font-family: "Garamond"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }...

— Jul 11 2011