What a furore Random House Australia has found itself in: they’ve had to withdraw the controversial bestseller Forbidden Love by gorgeous Norma Khouri books for sale at Real Groovy">Norma Khouri (right) from bookstores. Allegedly, it was not a work of non-fiction as marketed, but just the opposite.
The book exposed 'honour killings' in Jordanian society, and tells the story of Dalia, Ms Khouri's best friend since childhood, who is stabbed many times by her own father for falling in love with a Catholic.
For reasons so far withheld, The Sydney Morning Herald saw fit to spend 18 months investigating the 33-year-old Jordanian-born Ms Khouri who, it is now claimed, spent most of her life in the States. And check out what she was saying 18 months ago… ouch! If it is even partly untrue, it’s enough to make one’s toes curl.
Even so, Forbidden Love has been published in at least 15 countries, and has sold more than 200,000 copies in Australia alone. Khouri even appeared at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival on 18 May 2003, in a session chaired by television journalist Janet Wilson called 'These delights have violent ends'.
Random House may end up on trial under the Fair Trading Act if the claims are proved. The Consumer's Institute's David Russell says that innocence of the facts in this case is no defence for Random House.
What I want to know is, why on earth didn’t Norma Khouri books for sale at Real Groovy">Norma Khouri just write her book as a novel, like Annamarie Jagose? As the Herald said this morning about her Montana Award-winning book Slow Water: 'There are gaps in the known facts about the case, and Jagose therefore felt fiction was the perfect form for exploring the story, although “I tried never to write anything that I knew couldn’t be true.” '
Well, yes. Tsk. Although, obviously, if the events described did happen to Ms Khouri, it is both more horrendous and therefore more alluring to the bookreading public. Time will tell ... she is being given a chance to clear her name and get those books back on the shelves. We'll see.
27 Jul 04 | Filed by Kathy | Add your comment (1 so far)
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Comment by Chris ~ July 30, 2004 9:36 AM
Looks like Khouri DOES have a chequered past, after all - but not the type fictionalised in her book. According to The Australian newspaper, when living in the USA "she was also once accused of beating her mother-in-law and threatening to kill her, but the case was dropped."
And an FBI agent had alleged she had, in 1999, "fled the country in an effort to avoid prosecution".
The report also notes that a US lawyer is "attempting to recover money allegedly owed by Khouri and her husband, John Toliopoulos, over a house they had failed to pay the mortgage on".
Well, looks like those royalties will come in handy!
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