Product Description

This is the Blackwell and Andrea Badenoch Fiction prize winner. The sequel is confirmed for 2006. The story is set in the aftermath of World War One. Paul Harris, still frail after shellshock, returns to his father's home and to the arms of his secret lover, Adam. He discovers that Margot, the fiancee of his dead brother, is pregnant and marries her through a sense of loyalty. Through Adam he finds work as a schoolteacher; while setting up a home with Margot he continues to see Adam. Pat Morgan who was a sergeant in Paul's platoon, runs a butcher's shop in town and cares for his twin brother, Mick who lost both legs in the war. Pat yearns for the closeness he experienced with Paul in the trenches. Set in a time when homosexuality was 'the love that dare not speak it's name' the story develops against the backdrop of the strict moral code of the period. Paul has to decide where his loyalty and his heart lies as all the characters search hungrily for the love and security denied them during the war. It is superbly written with engaging characters that are simultaneously strong and weak, compassionate and flawed. The book is a controversial but compulsive read and readers will find their sympathies tugged in unusual directions as they engage with the lives of the characters. "The Boy I Love" is the first of a two book series - in the second book, based in World War 2 we follow the life of Mick, now a war poet, his son and Robbie, son of Paul and Margot.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #140012 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 276 pages

Review
"Vivid & accomplished debut: Marion Husband explores the morality of wartime Britain with intelligent & compassionate insight." Debbie Taylor, Editor, Mslexia "Compelling & sensual. Well written... " PENNY SUMMER"

Debbie Taylor, Editor, Mslexia
Vivid & accomplished debut: Marion Husband explores the morality of wartime Britain with intelligent & compassionate insight

Gay Times, September 2005
Beautifully written. The characters' lives are seamlessly woven together and all have considerable depth and complexity.

Customer Reviews

Gripping - something for everyone
Set in the socially tempestuous aftermath of World War I, and full of early twentieth-century taboos, love and betrayal, Marion Husband's award-winning debut novel is a passionately written and thought-provoking affair. Protagonist Paul Harris, a homosexual soldier fated to marry the fiancée of his dead brother through loyalty, is a deeply tender character drifting into a world he cannot love.
Forced to hide his true desires for his sometime lover and former sergeant, Adam, now a butcher, the difficulties that one can only imagine were faced in the post war period by ex-soldiers are laid out sensitively. By no means a 'fully wronged' man, Paul, like the other characters, has his emotional and physical frailties, and rather than force any one point of view on her reader, Marion Husband calmly portrays a balanced narrative allowing the readers to make up their own minds.
Through the vivid flashbacks the author highlights the contrasts between events lived and living, and in the sweat, tears and anger of war the same passions rumble with a whole different form of expression. Allowing the characters to develop in effortless prose with a series of graphic sex scenes and realistic dialect, 'the love that dare not speak its name' is explored with true feeling and passionate lust.
What really struck me about this novel was the difficulty I found in putting it down, as I was gripped by its intricate romantic plotline and compact cast of memorable and contrasting characters. Complicated issues are tackled with great sensitivity while the storyline bounds along at a pace, and whether it is reflecting on the moral quandary of society's prejudice only a few generations ago, or indulging in classic romance, there is something here for everyone.

The Boy I love
WOW! This is the only word that comes to mind. If you are looking for FANTASTIC then this is the book for you. Never having written or wanting to write a review I felt compeled to let other people know what a gem this book is. I have just finished the sequel and it is just as good.(If not better). Others have written what to expect so I won't say it again but the story flows like smooth silk sheets. Even the graphic accounts of war are handled with grace, as are the love, duty and honour. Paul, Patrick, Mick, Margot and even Adam will remain with me forever. Especially Paul and Pat.

Book clubs will love this novel
The Boy I Love is set in Engalnd just after the First World War, and though love and battle may be popular subjects, this writer seeks to probe beyond the 'normal' and the 'ordinary' - as do her characters.

This is the kind of novel that books clubs, and anyone who likes a good story, will love. It is accessible, easy to read and a page turner, but as well as that it raises questions. This is a book about complex desires and needs, set in a time that does not accept relationships that are anything other than the norm. Complicated issues are tackled with great sensitivity and insight in what turns out to be a romance with a difference.

Winner of the Andrea Badenoch Award for Fiction and the Blackwell Prize, Marion Husband has written a thought-provoking story full of memorable images and descriptions that explore the ever-current difficulties of unaccepted love. Thoroughly recommended!