Daniel Gawthrop
June 08th, 2023
The topics of Daniel Gawthrop’s last five non-fiction books range from AIDS activist Dr. Peter Jepson-Young, NDP Premier Mike Harcourt, Pope Benedict XVI, environmentalism, and the politics of gay ethnicity and desire. Now he’s released his first novel, Double Karma (Cormorant $24.95) about an American photographer, Min Lin, who heads to his father’s homeland of Burma in 1988 where pro-democracy activists are trying to overthrow the military regime. Min gets caught up in the movement after falling in love with one of its leaders. When she’s arrested, Min flees to the jungle and, joining the rebels, comes face-to-face on the battlefield with a Burmese army captain who looks exactly like him. After an explosion kills his double, Min awakes in a hospital misidentified as a hero of the regime, causing him to pose as the dead soldier for his own survival. He escapes back to LA a few years later where he builds a new life, accepts his homosexuality and learns to deal with his father’s secret history in Burma. Decades later, a new wave of religious persecution and ethno-nationalism in the country now known as Myanmar compels Min to return. Still haunted by the events of ’88, and knowing his ex-girlfriend is to be released from prison, Min must come to terms with his actions while seeking the truth about the double he met on a battlefield a lifetime ago. 9781770866836
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