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'Call Me By Your Name is a beautiful and wise book, written with both lightness and concentrated care for the precise truth of every moment in its drama...it has always been clear from Aciman's non-fiction that he would write a wonderful book, but this is a miracle.' Colm Toibin
Set during a restless summer on the Italian Riviera, Call Me By Your Name tell the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blooms between seventeen year old Elio and his father's house guest Oliver. Currents of obsession and fear, fascination and desire threaten to overwhelm the lovers, who at first feign indifference to the charge between them. A romance barely six weeks' duration will prove to be an experience that will mark them both for a lifetime. For what the two discover on the Riviera and during a sultry evening in Rome is the one thing they both already fear they may never truely find again: toial intimacy. An amazing novel and highly recommended.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
'A wickedly brisk blend of sexual romps and intricate sleuthing. Cliche-free erotica is a treasure; an intelligent mystery is a pleasure. Finding both between the covers of the same book is elegantly orgasmic.' Richard Labonte
Handsome, muscular Edward 'Mitch' Mitchell made a splash in James Lear's spicy variation on the British cozy mystery, The Back Passage. Now he's back in this steamy send-up of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, travelling from Edinburgh to London for a renunion with his ex, 'Boy' Morgan. All aboard the Flying Scotsman for a ride that's anything but smooth, as Mitch discovers his fellow travellers include Belgian power bottom Bertrant, sleazy starlet Daisy Athenasy and her butch publicist, Peter Dickinson. Add to the recipe a group of kilt-wearing soldiers, some very accommodating railway workers and a dead body tumbling out of the toilet, and you have a magical mix of comdedy, mystery and non-stop sex. Who said gay erotica couldn't be hot, literate and brilliantly entertaining? James Lear is the author of The Back Passage, The Palace of Varieties and Hot Valley.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
'The book is a marvel of the subtle layers of storytelling, and at every layer it is fascinating, tragic and utterly beautiful.' Ann Patchett
The famed writer Stephen Crane is travelling to a German clinic in search of a cure for the tuberculosis that threatens his life. Knowing that it may be his last chance, he dictates 'The Painted Boy', a story inspired by real-life encounters. But as the story delves into the seedy underworld of turn-of-the-century Manhattan, Crane's health deterioates and its outcome becomes as critical as the author's life itself.
'Marvellously compelling and moving...In short, pungent chapters - as intimate as pages from a diary, as bluntly cropped as photographs - the novel shuttles the reader between three cunningly interwoven stories...Like the loves they describe, the sentences of the book are eccentric, disgracefully funny and shockingly beautiful by turns.' Neil Bartlett.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
'Once again Michael Thomas Ford delivers an extraordinary novel that explores the glorious flaws and frailties of human beings in the never-ending struggle to connect, to be open to love, and tho embrace the unknown in order to live fully.'
Marine biologist Ben Ransome understands the sea, especially the tiny, beautiful sea slugs he has studied and admired for most of his life. What Ben doesn't understand are people
Hudson Jones has come to Monterey, California, to find answers to all his questions. The young, ambitious graduate student believes he's found a lost John Steinbeck novel called Changing Tides that seems to hint at the author's love for his best friend. If he can prove it his career will be made. But first, he'll need some help in his research, and Ben may just be able to help.
Sharing dinners on the beach, intellectual discussions and then heart-to-heart conversations, Ben and Hudson's tentative friendship evolves into a surprising, revelatory relationship.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
'A delightfully different romp through regency London - a breezy tale of love, lust and secrets...with a rollicking new twist!'
The meddling mothers of the Regency would do anything to wed their daughters to Andrew Carrington, the wealthy, handsome, and athletic heir to an earldom. There is one problem, however. No women in all England would suit the determined bachelor, for Andrew far prefers the company of men - at his table and in his bedroom. But with privilege comes reponsibility. Andrew must take a bride. And while Phyllida Lewis, the penniless, spirited, and curvaceous author of romantic novels, is not quite what his family had in mind, a marriage to her would enable Andrew to live his life as he pleases. The arrival of Andrew Thornby, the honorable and dashing son of a self-made baronet, into their cozy arrangement makes Andrew's happiness complete. Yet a shrewd enemy is waiting in the wings, threathening to expose them all - an act that will surely lead to scandal and ruin. Fabulous!
To order call 0207 278 7654.
In Metro, twenty-seven year old Australian author Alasdair Duncan gets to grips with the phenomenon of 'straight' boys who sleep with other men. He also explores the notion of the new Metrosexual male. This is the new image-conscious rich urban young man. He might be officially gay, straight or bisexual, but this is utterly immaterial because he has taken himself his own love object and pleasure as his sexual preference. Metro is the story of the priviledged and hot Aussie college jock, Liam Kelly. Girls want him and boys want to be him. But when his girlfiend goes off on a six month trip round Europe Liam decides that it's boys that he wants, and what Liam wants Liam gets…but how much is he willing to risk for his new secret life? Metro is a fresh, punchy and sexy new novel that explores urban youth culture with authenticity and insight. Both a modern satire and morality tale, it's a book that resists categorization, and is the stronger for it. To order call 0207 278 7654.
A sexy, sensitive American coming-of-age novel about identity and courage, love and honor, anger and hope, and the many ways the truth can set you free. In many ways Jason Peele is like any other teenager. But there's one way that he is very different:when he dreams at night, it isn't about girls, it's about boys. The one place Jason feels comfortable is on the track where he can run fast and hard, with the roar of the crowd in his ears. But now, even his sanctuary feels threatening. It isn't just the jerks who call him "faggot" in the locker room. A new guy has joined the team, and everything about him will challenge the way Jason sees life. To order call 0207 278 7654.
I Must Confess is the fictional autobiography of Marc LeJeune and his remarkable but chequered show-biz career. Hapless and heart-warmingly pretentious, Marc is a star who knows that real talent comes at a price. Petty jealousies and envious detractors, it would seem, always shadow the truly gifted. This is a sophisticated and wildly entertaining satire of pop-culture history.
Finding initial fame as 'The Regular Guy' in a laxative-product advert and later notoriety as the star of certain 'artistic' films, Marc sometimes suffers for his art and for taking his talents a little too seriously. Indeed, at times it would seem his inflated ego is ready to pop. Every page of his fabulous odyssey makes you smile. I Must Confess provides a catharsis for the drama queen in all of us. Engaging, moving and hilarious, I Must Confess is an outstandingly entertaining read.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
This historical fantasy, written by the son of the well-known German novelist Thomas Mann, takes Alexander the Great for its subject, charting his life and career, and examining his obsession with conquest and supremacy, regardless of its effects on his friends and lovers. Written in 1920s Germany in the aftermath of WWII, this timeless story can also be viewed as a fascinating study of power with highly political connotations. Published wirh a foreword by Jean Cocteau, Alexander is a captivating early work of historical fiction from a troubled and unjustly neglected writer. To order call 0207 278 7654.
Through a hilarious series of events, two strangers find themselves railroaded into an anger-management class, where they soon become fast friends. Iris is there because of an eminently justifiable meltdown on a crowded filght, whereas Ken got caught defacing library books with rude (but true!) messages about his former boyfriend - the boyfriend that he caught in bed with another man on the same night he got fired from his job proofreading in a law firm.
Needless to say, Iris and Ken were cosmically destined to be friends. What follows is a strikingly original comedy of (occasionally bad) manners as Ken enlists Iris to infiltrate his ex-boyfriend's life in the hope of discovering that he's miserable. And Iris reciprocates, dispatching Ken to work himself into the confidence of her own boyfriend, who she suspects is beginning to stray. But what if Ken's ex isn't crying himself to sleep? What if he's not the amoral fiend Ken wants to believe he is? And what should Iris do when her worst suspicions start to come true? Exactly how perfect do we have the right to expect our fellow human beings to be?
To order call 0207 278 7654.
In 1840s Damascus, Aslan Farhi leads a miserable life. Despised by his wealthy father, bullied by his siblings, and humiliated by his mother, he forms a close friendship with another boy, only for him to mysteriously disappear when their relationship becomes public knowledge. Aslan is horrified when his father arranges for him to be married to the rabbi's daughter, but the ordeal of the wedding is unexpectedly lightened by the presence of an exotic dancer, Umm-Jihan, with whom he becomes entranced. But all is not as it seems and, confused and unhappy, Aslan embarks on an ill-advised relationship with an Italian monk, with disastrous consequences. To order call 0207 278 7654.
New to St Petersburg, young, naive Vanya Smurov finds a mentor in the enigmatic and intellectual Larion Stroop, who initiates him into a fascinating sphere of art and beauty. As Vanya is drawn into Stroop's world of aesthetic sensuality, he also becomes aware that Stroop is a frequenter of bathhouses: a homosexual. Disturbed by this revelation, Vanya abandons Stroop and moves to the Volga countryside in search of a more traditional existence. Yet he soon finds that the alternatives offered there are equally unsettling, leading him to question his initial reaction to Stroop's hedonistic lifestyle. Published in a new translation, Wings was the first Russian novel to focus on homosexuality. Greeted with outrage when it appeared in 1906, this unjustly neglected work is a groundbreaking and sensitive study of a young man's struggle to come to terms with his identity. To order call 0207 278 7654.
Traslated from the Spanish original, these are two stoires placed in front of each other like mirrors. The first is set in first-century Rome and relates the rise and fall of Mazuf, a homosexual Syrian scribe who becomes a renowned man of letters and a murderer. The second is a confession by a present-day American named Laurence; it seems to be simply a record of his sexual exploits during his student days at Harvard, but we xoon find out there is much more to his tale than first appears. Laurence, a disaffected and sophisticated narator, is a murderer too. But what is the connection between the two men? Is the key an old copy of Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire? And can stories change, not only the future, but more compellingly, the past? In a playfully unsettling and wonderfully sensual novel, prize-winning author Jose Luis de Juan explores the secret history of desire and the dark desire to make history. To order call 0207 278 7654.
At 52, Karl Preston lives an ideal American life with his wife and 24-year-old daughter, in an affluent North Carolina suburb. At the request of his father, Karl and his family travel to Florida for a weekend visit that generates a roller-coaster ride of emotions that buttoned-up Karl is not fully prepared to deal with. Frank and Annike, Karl's elderly parents, use this reunion to announce their planned move to a retirement community and their wishes to divide their lifelong belongings amoung their children and grandchild. It's a remarkable moment for Karl, especially when he is faced with his estranged younger gay brother, Sven, who, as the primary caretaker of their parents, has had to deal with the daily difficulties of their mother's growing dementia. As Karl reconnects with his parents and brother, he finds himself both saying goodbye to his mother and laying the foundations for a deeper relationship with the remainder of his family. What is meant to be a simple visit 'home' has instead become a life-affirming and heart rending journey with people Karl has long consigned to the periphery of his life. From the author of Back Where He Stared. To order call 0207 278 7654.
Certain to become a cornerstone of the gay literary tradition, Between Men brings together new and unpublished stories from eighteen of today's best gay writers. Edmund White delves into nineteenth-century Manhattan, re-imagining an encounter between author Stephen Crane and "The Painted Boy." Andrew Holleran brilliantly portrays how youth, beauty, and time encroach on four vacationing gay men. James McCourt releases an unforgettable new outtake from the legendary correspondence of Mawrdew Czgowchwz. And Dale Peck enters the "Garden of the Lost and Found." From Kevin Killian's "Greensleeves" to Wayne Koestenbaum's "Diary of A Quack," and from Robert Gluck's "Bi-sexual Pussy Boy" to John Weir's "Neo-Realism at the Infiniplex," Between Men is an essential snap shot of gay fiction as it stands today. like the lives it describes, it is a rich, diverse, unexpectedly wise, often funny, and sometimes a little dangerous. To order call 0207 278 7654.
In this eagerly anticipated new novel from the author of Fag Hag master satirist Robert Rodi reveals it's not so easy to walk in someone ele's shoes. Between bouts of marathon sex, high-society soirees, cardiovascular crises, and family calamities, two gay men are about to discover the perils and pitfalls that come with alter egos. What happens when a rich, successful 53 year old gay man swaps bodies and lives with a hot but jaded 26 year old party boy with no prospects? - It can only get horrible complicated. A wise and winning novel about identity and self-knowledge, envy and ambition, age and experience and that you should be careful what you wish for... To order call 0207 278 7654.
Dark Reflections is the story of Arnold Hawley, an African American poet, who has lived in New York City's Lower East Side for most of his adult life. Cramped by loneliness and fear of old age, on the death of his aunt he has a nervous breakdown. The novel goes on to tell of his unlikely marriage to a deeply disturbed young woman; of his sexual fixation on a black delivery man, Slake Bowman, who is the lover of a white photographer; and the revelation it leads to. Dark Reflections is a beautifully crafted novel and an extraordinary meditation on deformed social attitudes, loneliness, and the startling invigoration of life's small triumphs. To order call 0207 278 7654.
For Ali Mirza, a young British born Pakistani man, life takes a sudden dramatic turn when his family arranges for him to get married even though he has told them he is gay. How will he survive his wedding night when he's not even turned on by his new bride, whom he has only met once for five minutes? Sajda, his wife, claims she is in love with him, but she does not even know him. For Ali, this is the tip of the iceberg as his boyfriend has moved to France and is hesitant to support Ali. Ali is torn between running away to join the love of his life, or staying to live the life his family has arranged for him. If he does run, will they find him and force him to be straight? Will he ever reunite with his lover? Ali must decide what is best for him and does in a matter of days. Straightening Ali is a riveting story about family ties, conflicting cultures and the basic dynamics of human relationships. To order call 0207 278 7654.
Newly out in paperback this is the winner of the 2007 Stonewall Award for Literature from the author of Dancer From the Dance. Reeling from the recent death of his invalid mother, an exhausted, lonely professor goes to Washington to escape. What he finds there - in his handsome, solitary landlord; in the city's sombre mood and sepulchral architecture; and the strange and impassioned letters and journals of Mary Todd Lincoln - shows him unexpected truths about America and loss. As he seeks to engage with the living world around him he comes to realise that his relationship to his grief is very different than he had thought. A masterwork from a writer beloved for his depth of feeling, humour, the elegance of his prose, and his unflinching honesty. To order call 0207 278 7654.
At forty-seven, Mr. F's working life on London's Skin Lane is one governed by calm, precision and routine. So when he starts to have frightening, recurring nightmares, he does his best to ignore them. The images that appear in his dreams are disturbing - Mr. F can't for the life of him think where they have come from. After all, he's a perfectly ordinary middle-aged man. As London's crooked backstreets negin to swelter in the long, hot summer of 1967, Mr. F's nightmare becomes an obsession. A chance encounter adds a face to the body that nightly haunts him, and the torments of his sweat-drenched nights lead him - and the reader - deeper into a labyrinth of rage, desire and shame. Part fairy-tale, part compelling evocation of a lost London, Neil Bartlett's long-awaited third novel is his fiercest piece of writing yet: cruel, erotic, and tender. To order call 0207 278 7654.