Nontraditional Love
| Author | Rafael Grugman |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Dystopian fiction, mystery, detective fiction, human rights |
| Publisher | Liberty Publishing House, New York |
Publication date | 2008 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| ISBN | 978-9326863643 |
Nontraditional Love is a dystopian novel written by the Russian writer Rafael Grugman and describes an alternative future where heterosexuality is outlawed. The novel was first published by Liberty Publishing House in November 2008[1] and nominated for the 2009 Rossica Translation Prize.[2] Nontraditional Love combines satire with Orwellian themes for a unique look at morals and society.
Plot
The scene is the twenty-third century. USA. Nontraditional Love describes a homosexual world in which mixed-sex marriages are forbidden. The homosexual society is intolerant of dissidents. Intimacy between the sexes is rejected. World history and the classics of world literature, such as Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Dumas... have been falsified in order to support the ideology of this opposite world.
At the heart of the novel is a love story between a man and a woman who are forced to hide their feelings and pass as homosexuals. After Robert Marcus' secret wife Liza abandoned him for another man, he decides to make a radical change in life and become a normal gay man. His first male partner should have been Jacob Stein, a retired policeman, but during their first date Jacob dies. Is it a murder or an accident? The FBI begins an investigation and accuses Robert of killing Jacob. The situation becomes complicated because Jacob Stein in his youth made the fateful mistake by having sex with a woman and Liza is Jacob's daughter…
In this satirical novel, where an erotic fantasy and a crime story are artfully intertwined, there is an overt call for our policy to be more tolerant in accepting and respecting a person’s right to be themselves. Any extreme prohibitions imposed upon that right may lead to a tragic, absurd reality akin to the world described by George Orwell in his prophetic novel 1984.
In the second book, I Was a Man in a Past Life, the main characters' adventures continue. We learn that Liza Conde is descended from the Princes of Conde, a branch of the Bourbon dynasty, which died out in the nineteenth century. Hypothetically, she has a claim to the French throne, which accounts for the murders of some of her close relatives, committed by a descendent of Napoleon Bonaparte who has dreams of resurrecting the empire.
Publication history
The novel was first published in New York by Liberty Publishing House in 2008.[1] The book was translated from Russian by Geoffrey Carlson.