Norma Khouri
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Norma Khouri (Norma Majid Khouri Michael Al-Bagain Toliopoulos, 1970-), a Jordanian woman living in exile in Australia, is the author of the book Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan. This book is known as Forbidden Love in Australia and other Commonwealth countries, and was released by Random House in 2003.
On July 24, 2004, Malcolm Knox, literary editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, revealed that she was not in fact living in Jordan during 1993-1995 (the timeframe of Forbidden Love), but was living in Chicago with her husband, John Toliopoulos, and her two children. At present the exact situation is unclear. The Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs is looking into the claims, but Random House Australia is taking the position that the claims are in good faith.
Things are further complicated for Random House Australia because Khouri was sponsored under the category of nomination for distinguished talent in 2002. On July 28, 2004, the Immigration and Multicultural Affairs Department said that Khouri was cleared of violating her visa stay regulations.
Khouri has said she will co-operate with all requests to provide documentation, and was said to be preparing to publish her next book A Matter of Honour in November 2004, again by Random House.
However, on August 18, 2004 Khouri spoke publicly and admitted that she took "literary licence" with the book, and that she did not receive any payment or royalties for the book. Random House and the British publisher have said that this is not true, and she received substantial payment for the work.
In Australia, Khouri's fabrications are being compared to those of Helen Demidenko, another famous Australian literary hoax, and the most notorious Australian literary hoax of all, Ern Malley.
