The shifting loyalties of five children and the secrets of the adults around them combine with tragic consequences in Naeem Murr’s captivating novel
Naeem Murr
According to Naeem Murr, ‘Any creative endeavour of any significance is simply not possible. Until it is done.’ Which is why, perhaps, he has written just three novels
Naeem Murr was born in London of Lebanese heritage and moved to America in his twenties, initially to study aeronautical engineering. ‘I don’t feel connected to a literary world at all’, he has said, which is perhaps why, despite wide acclaim, The Perfect Man (2006) was the last of his three novels to be published – although there has been a novella, Nude, in 2012. According to Murr: ‘A writer is the worst kind of formulator of human beings – always categorising – but, as a saving grace, creating categories that are skewed and complex.’