AUSTRALIA: The author of a hugely successful book on an "honour killing" in Jordan may be deported from Australia after her work was exposed as fiction by a Sydney newspaper, writes Pádraig Collins in Sydney.
Norma Khouri's book, Forbidden Love, has sold hundreds of thousands of copies and has been published in 15 countries over the last 18 months, but yesterday it was withdrawn from sale in her adopted home of Australia amid allegations the book was faked.
Random House Australia withdrew it and advised booksellers to do the same after the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper said at the weekend that it was a fraud.
Forbidden Love is a memoir of the author's life growing up in Jordan, and includes an account of a Muslim friend being murdered by her father in a so-called honour killing because she fell in love with a Christian man. Ms Khouri personally petitioned the United Nations on the issue of honour killings.
However, it was alleged last weekend that Ms Khouri's real name is Norma Majid Khouri Michael al-Bagain Toliopoulos, and that she left Jordan for America at the age of three.
Ms Khouri is living at a secret location in Queensland, having been granted a temporary protection visa on the grounds that her life would be threatened if she returned to Jordan.
Australia's Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said last night that the author was under investigation. "The Department of Immigration is investigating matters associated with the Migration Act in relation to allegations made over the weekend," she said.
The Sydney Morning Herald alleged that Random House had sponsored Ms Khouri for her visa and that her residency in Australia could be threatened.
Though the paper published a picture of Ms Khouri in America with her husband and two children, she denied that the allegations were true. "I have only ever been to America after the book was published, on a publicity tour," she said. She also denied that she has any children.
The book has been very successful in Australia, with almost 200,000 copies sold. Australians recently voted her memoir as the 55th best book of all time. Many of those readers are now looking for their money back.
If the book does turn out to be a hoax it will be joining several others in Australian literature.
Peter Carey's most recent novel, My Life As A Fake, was based on the true story of two army officers in the 1940s who wowed the country by publishing under the name Ern Malley, an imaginary poet.