Title: A Right to Love
Author: Mark Frew
Genre: Gay Fiction / Religious / Psychological
Book blurb: The story
is about a non-religious man, called Michael, who is a teacher in a modern
college. He meets a student, Polycarp, who is a refugee from Rwanda and who has
lost all of his family. Michael decides to travel to Africa to find out if any
of Polycarp's family members are still alive. In the process, he meets a devout
Muslim sub-Saharan African man, Ibrahim. Michael and Ibrahim fall in love and
as their relationship develops, Michael and Ibrahim have to adjust to each
other's outlooks on life. Throughout the process, the interpretation of both the
Bible and the Koran, and how homosexuality can be accepted within this
framework are discussed.
Author bio
Mark Frew is a teacher of English to speakers
of other languages. He has a bachelor degree in chemistry and is an avid
linguist who speaks several languages. Mark Frew is also the author of
Mauritian Creole in Seven Easy Lessons, Michael and the Multicoloured Gospel
and Farewell My Pashtun.
Links
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26181123-a-right-to-love?from_search=true&search_version=service
Book Excerpt
“Bwana Michael,” Amani replied. “To be very
honest with you, if I had not known about my father, I would have maintained
the same belief as all other macho Tanzanian men that this relationship between
him and you was wrong. But my father was a good father to us children and
worthy of respect, not only because it is in our culture to respect our parents
but because my father was a great man. Because of this, I have had to change my
thoughts about the whole matter. Also, now that I have met you, and from what
my father has said about you and all the good things you do, that you came all
this way to help someone out, and now listening to what you have to say, I am
forced to think differently about it. And I can see that you will make my
father very happy.”
Amani stopped there which gave me a moment
to reflect. Did you listen to yourself? I thought. Let’s substitute a few other
hypothetical aspects of a person and see if you could say the same thing. “If I
had known that my father was a murderer/rapist/thief/child molester, I would
have had to change my thoughts about murderers/rapists/thieves/child
molesters.” No, you would never say that. This just shows that your father’s
sexuality is not in the same league. It wouldn’t matter how much you loved and
respected your father in your childhood if one day you found out he made a
practice of murdering people in cold blood, or raping people, or stealing
things of great value, or molesting children. These would actually cause you to
no longer respect your father, and in some ways fear him. The reason why you
can continue to respect your father with this new knowledge of him is because
deep down you know it is not inherently a bad thing. The only problem with it
is that it makes people feel uncomfortable that people engage in such
activities that others would never engage in themselves.
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