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'"I was blinded by his beauty. In the one or two photographs I've kept of him I can still see it. He stares out of them almost miserably, as if his loveliness is an affliction. Not that I saw it that way, at least not in the beginning. In the beginning I thought it was a kind of miracle."
'Arthur Wheeler is haunted by his infatuation with a Japanese youth he encountered in the enemy alien camp where he worked as a guard during WW2. Abandoning his wife and baby son, Arthur sets out on a doomed mission to rescue his lover from forced deportation back to Japan, a country in ruins.
'Thus begins the secret history of a soldier at war with his own sexuality and dangerously at odds with the racism that underpins the crumbling British Empire.
'Four decades later Arthur is still obsessed with the traumatic events of his youth. He proposes a last reunion with his lost lover, in the hope of laying his ghosts to rest, but this mission too seems doomed to failure.
'Like Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence and Snow Falling On Cedars, My Beautiful Enemy explores questions of desire and redemption against the background of a savage racial war. In this context, Arthur's private battles against his own nature, and against the conventions of his time, can only end in heartache.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Notes
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Dedication: for Shin
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Epigraph: Why is the measure of love loss? -Jeanette Winterson
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Franklin Short List Revealed
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The West Australian , 20 May 2014; (p. 7) -
Writers' War of Words
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 28 February 2014; (p. 39) -
Brisbane Writers the Last Word in Talent
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 1 May 2014; (p. 50) -
Holding Your Enemies Close
2013
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 11-12 May 2013; (p. 19) -
Reader's Life
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: Good Reading , August 2013; (p. 72)
— Review of The Wounded Guardian 2009 single work novel ; My Beautiful Enemy 2013 single work novel
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Loving the Thing You're Supposed to Hate
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 18-19 May 2013; (p. 20)
— Review of My Beautiful Enemy 2013 single work novel -
Arthur's Quest
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June no. 352 2013;
— Review of My Beautiful Enemy 2013 single work novel -
Wartime Wound That Never Heals
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 29-30 Jume 2013; (p. 27) The Age , 29 June 2013; (p. 26) The Canberra Times , 29 June 2013; (p. 23)
— Review of My Beautiful Enemy 2013 single work novel -
Well Read
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 8 June 2013; (p. 28)
— Review of My Beautiful Enemy 2013 single work novel ; The Memory Trap 2013 single work novel -
Reader's Life
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: Good Reading , August 2013; (p. 72)
— Review of The Wounded Guardian 2009 single work novel ; My Beautiful Enemy 2013 single work novel -
Holding Your Enemies Close
2013
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 11-12 May 2013; (p. 19) -
Brisbane Writers the Last Word in Talent
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 1 May 2014; (p. 50) -
Writers' War of Words
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 28 February 2014; (p. 39) -
Franklin Short List Revealed
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The West Australian , 20 May 2014; (p. 7) -
Finding the Man
Portia Lindsay
(interviewer),
2013
single work
interview
— Appears in: Books + Publishing , February vol. 92 no. 4 2013; (p. 27) 'In her second novel, Cory Taylor worked hard to capture the voice of her protagonist, a young soldier infatuated with a Japanese youth in an internment camp in regional Victoria during World War II. She spoke to Portia Lindsay.'
Awards
- 2014 shortlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award