Book description
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 fiancée
of his dead brother, is pregnant and marries her through a sense of
loyalty. Though 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.
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 following the life of Mick, now a war poet,
his son and Robbie, son of Paul and Margot.
As with all the best novelists, Husband's talent seems to draw its
energy from the experience of writing from perspectives far removed
from her own as she inhabits other genders, other sexualities, other
eras. Her ventriloquism is compelling
Marion Husband is a compassionate and compelling writer exploring
the complexities of human nature with great empathy. Her debut novel
The Boy I Love,the first in the three part The Boy I
Love Trilogy, won the Andrea Badenoch Fiction Award and The
Blackwell Prize. Her other novels include The Good Father and
Say You Love Me. She is married with two grown-up children
and teaches creative writing.
