something that's intriguing me at the moment is the whole norma khouri fact/fiction debate thing. if you have no idea what i'm talking about, go to the book sections for the age online or smh online and read about it: in the meantime, here's a brief rundown. norma khouri is the author of a 'non-fiction' book called 'forbidden love', an international bestseller. based in jordan, it is about her childhood friend dalia, whom norma met when they were both three years of age, and with whom norma opened a unisex hair salon in 1999. dalia falls in love with an english customer to the salon, and they commense a chaste love affair. dalia's father finds out, and kills dalia by stabbing her twelve times. dalia's father gets away with it because the law in jordan recognises 'honour killings' like this, where a father is seen to be protecting his family's honour by killing a daughter who is no longer chaste. after the murder it is found that dalia was still a virgin. norma khouri has travelled the world denouncing honour killings, something she has described as her 'life's mission' since her friend dalia's death. she says she lives in fear for her own life and has received death threats, that if she ever were to return to jordan, she would never survive the trip.
here's the thing, though. dalia never existed.
it has now been found that norma khouri left jordan with her family when she was three, and lived in chicago for the next twenty seven years. she has a husband, two children, and a married name of touliopolous. she has a mother and sisters still in chicago who have not seen or heard from her since norma, her husband and her children left suddenly in 1999. norma khouri has been living in queensland under a protection visa granted by the australian government, a visa for which her publishers were sponsors. norma khouri has been eerily silent since this story broke, only issuing brief statements standing by her version of events, and advising that she will be back soon with proof. her publishers have gone from vehement support of their author, to pulling her books off the shelf and admitting that they, like the rest of us, are waiting for norma. what i want to know is, why didn't they ask her for proof that the story was real before they printed it? it seems that norma khouri has built herself an imaginary world, and then bought her own story. i can't wait to see how this one pans out.