"So effective is the author's treatment . . . that he manages to bring home in a remarkable manner the suffering of the homosexual. . . . It took real courage to write this story, plus a profound insight into human feelings and sensitivities." - Frank G. Slaughter, New York Times "A sad, serious first novel called The Heart in Exile cannot fairly be ignored. . . . Its detached picture of barren tragic love and desire in a furtive fantastic 'underground' sector of London can arouse no disgust but only a deep pity ...
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"So effective is the author's treatment . . . that he manages to bring home in a remarkable manner the suffering of the homosexual. . . . It took real courage to write this story, plus a profound insight into human feelings and sensitivities." - Frank G. Slaughter, New York Times "A sad, serious first novel called The Heart in Exile cannot fairly be ignored. . . . Its detached picture of barren tragic love and desire in a furtive fantastic 'underground' sector of London can arouse no disgust but only a deep pity coupled with a new understanding." - Marghanita Laski, The Observer "An extremely important book." - Truth "A completely honest story of homosexual life in London. . . . It makes no attempt to defend or condemn. A well-written work." - John Betjeman, Daily Telegraph "Written with great competence." - Walter Allen, New Statesman Julian Leclerc, a handsome and talented young barrister, has been found dead of an apparent overdose of sleeping pills. The verdict is accidental death, but his fianc???e, Ann Hewitt, suspects there's something more to the story. As the grieving woman recounts the details of Julian's tragic end to psychiatrist Dr. Tony Page, he listens with acute interest - but not for the reason she thinks. Years earlier, he and Julian had been lovers, and now, disturbed by the circumstances of his friend's demise, Tony sets out to uncover the truth. His quest will take him from the parties and pubs of the gay underworld of 1950s London to Scotland Yard and the House of Commons as he uses his shrewd and penetrating insight to find who or what was responsible for Julian's death. But he may discover more than he bargained for - about Julian, and himself. . . . First published in 1953, Rodney Garland's noir thriller The Heart in Exile is both a groundbreaking classic of gay fiction and the first gay detective story. Long unavailable, Garland's famous novel returns to print at last in this edition, which features a new introduction by Neil Bartlett.
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An an experienced psychologist, Tony Page finds that two of his patients are involved in a long series of events which once had also included Tony, and leads to to the novel's beginning: the aftermath of the suicide of someone Tony used to know. Tony lives exhilaratingly a detective's life in trying to learn why his former friend would commit suicide. The trouble is that Tony's former friend did not leave many coherent clues, and no one person knew the perilous implications behind the suicide victim's apparently successful double life. Garland's moral may be that no one who leads a double life is ever known -- and loved -- thoroughly; each participant in someone's double life gets only parenthetical stems and pieces; and, at last, the one leading a double life gets but discrete and unresolved fragments adding up to confusion and self-loathing. As a psychiatrist also leading a double life in his own way, Tony must also tactfully and discreetly navigate the mystery of the human heart -- in his patents and in himself. Tony's is a quest, against all likelihood, to tie together the discrete parts of his own life. Written and set in England's immediate post-war years, the story does not have a typical ending for its time, although it seems it to be coming to an end several times before the last chapter.
