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'Boyhood' starts in rural South Africa in the 1940s and focusses on a young boy. Written in the third person, it later becomes apparent that this is supposed to be written by that young boy later in life. We have to wait for around half the book to learn that the boy's name is John Coetzee. There are clearly autobiographical aspects to this life although the extent to which John ''is'' JM is necessarily open to some debate. The portrayal of a boy trying to make sense of his place in the world, stifled by his mother's love and with a distant relationship with his father, is quite brilliant, although at times harrowingly painful. Add in the complexities of being an English speaking child with an Afrikaner name and it's little wonder that the boy feels isolated. The writing is superb and feels like an authentic voice of a loner child. John doesn't help his feelings of alienation by signing up as a Roman Catholic at his Protestant school on the basis that he likes Roman emperors!