The boy I love - Marion Husband

Set in the aftermath of World War I, and full of early twentieth-century taboos, love and betrayal, Marion Husband’s award-winning debut novel is passionately written and thought-provoking. Lieutenant Paul Harris marries the fiance of his dead brother through loyalty. Forced to hide his true desires for his former sergeant, Patrick, the difficulties that 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 portrays a balanced narrative allowing the readers to make up their own minds.

Through the vivid flashbacks the characters develop in effortless prose and realistic dialect, and 'the love that dare not speak its name' is explored with true feeling and passion. With an 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. Exploring the prejudice of only a few generations ago, The Boy I Love is a classic romance.