Galapagos
From NYC-based Colombian writer F獺tima V矇lez comes debut novel Galapagos, following a group of bohemian artists who are dying of AIDS as they embark on a surreal final voyage through the Galapagos Islands, their bodies cloaked in the skins of the dead. Lorenzo is a painter who doesn't paint. He spends his days watching Jeanne Moreau films, luxuriating in his partner Juan B's bed, and swapping letters with his lovers. Then, one day, his nail falls off. Then another nail, then all of them. Thus begins a journey of decomposition that carries him from Colombia to Paris, from Paris to the French countryside, and on a final journey to the Gal獺pagos Archipelago. As they cruise the islands on a custom-made ship, Lorenzo and his friends and lovers drink, swap stories, and feast gluttonously, even as their bodies succumb to an unspeakable disease. In this contemporary plague novel, rife with pathos and humor, ailing bodies are torn between desire and decay, lust and friendship, creativity and destruction. V矇lez revolutionizes the novel form, pushing language to its extreme as she tests the limits of how we understand illness, sexuality, the body, and what it means to make art in the face of our own mortality.
Casanova 20
A novel about art, desire, and mortality, Casanova 20: Or, Hot World follows a young man isolated by his extraordinary beauty and his strange friendship with an older painter Cursed by an extreme and unrelenting beauty, Adrian has drawn the frenzied attention of adoring strangers since childhood. As a twenty-nine-year-old in New York City, he spends his days drifting between affairs with women (and occasionally men) who provide him with everything he needs, from spending money to luxurious vacations to even, once, a mini yacht. With this generosity comes a dangerous possessiveness that often puts him at risk of much worse than heartbreak. But as people begin removing their masks in the spring of 2021, Adrian's aimless sexual availability is interrupted by a shocking discovery: He is no longer beautiful. Across the country, Adrian's best friend and companion, Mark, a world-famous painter, has returned to the family home in rural Northern California. He's faced with his own horrible revelation: He's dying from the same mysterious disease that will soon take his mother and sister. Despite the depth of their platonic romance, neither man reveals his fate to the other. Feeling as if he's disappearing from sight, Adrian searches for answers among his thousands of lovers. In a race against his failing body, Mark becomes obsessed with watching fifty-two VHS tapes of unknown origin, left to him by his sister, before it's too late. "An astounding writer, seemingly unconstrained by taboos and waist-deep down in the maw of life" (Torrey Peters), Davey Davis presents a modern-day Casanova figure grappling with what it means to find true intimacy when his very existence means constant exposure to the world's violent desire.
Dayspring
NATIONAL BESTSELLER - WINNER OF THE 2024 DAYNE OGILVIE PRIZE FOR LGBTQ2S+ EMERGING WRITERS - One of Indigo's Top 10 Literary Fiction Books of 2024 and Top 100 Books of 2024 - One of CBC's Best Canadian Fiction of 2024 A singular, stunning debut that transcends and transfigures genre--at once a bold retelling of biblical tales and an unforgettable contemporary coming-of-age story, connected in collapsing time across millennia. There are few love stories in the holy books. Love is what ruins. Love is what costs. Love is a flaming sword at our backs, a garden left to ruin and to wild. In Dayspring, Anthony Oliveira brings to vibrant, glorious life the gospel according to the disciple Christ loved--his companion in the days before the crucifixion, the only instrument that remembers with fidelity his sound. Sacred, profane, and rich with explicit desire and a poetic attention to form, Dayspring weaves electric and heart-wrenching stories of passion, grief, destruction, and survival into a narrative unmoored in space and time, one that re-examines and re-frames great and doomed figures from scripture and history, even as it casts its keen eye on the trials of modern life. Seamlessly blending fiction, memoir, and verse in the exhilarating tradition of Anne Carson and Madeline Miller, Dayspring is an immersive, mesmerizing work, one that wrenches beauty from cataclysm and finds bliss in apocalypse.
We Could Be Rats
A "one-sitting-read" (Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author) about two very different sisters, and a love letter to childhood, growing up, and the power of imagination--from the bestselling author of Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead and Interesting Facts About Space. Sigrid hates working at the Dollar Pal but having always resisted the idea of growing up into the trappings of adulthood, she did not graduate high school, preferring to roam the streets of her small town with her best friend Greta, the only person in the world who ever understood her. Her older sister Margit is baffled and frustrated by Sigrid's inability to conform to the expectations of polite society. But Sigrid's detachment veils a deeper turmoil and sensitivity. She's haunted by the pains of her past--from pretending her parents were swamp monsters when they shook the floorboards with their violent arguments to grappling with losing Greta's friendship to the opioid epidemic ravaging their town. As Margit sets out to understand Sigrid and the secrets she has hidden, both sisters, in their own time and way, discover that reigniting their shared childhood imagination is the only way forward. "A must read" (Haley Jakobson, New York Times Editor's Choice author), We Could Be Rats is an unforgettable story of two sisters finding their way back to each other, and a celebration of that transcendent, unshakable bond.
Minor Black Figures
From the Booker Prize finalist and bestselling author: a perceptive novel about a gay Black painter navigating the worlds of art, desire, and creativity A newcomer to New York, Wyeth is a Black painter who grew up in the South and is trying to find his place in the contemporary Manhattan art scene. It's challenging. Gallery shows displaying bad art. Pretentious artists jockeying for attention. The gossip and the backstabbing. While his part-time work for an art restorer is engaging, Wyeth suffers from artist's block with his painting and he is finding it increasingly difficult to spark his creativity. When he meets Keating, a white former seminarian who left the priesthood, Wyeth begins to reconsider how to observe the world, in the process facing questions about the conflicts between Black and white art, the white gaze on the Black body, and the compromises we make - in art and in life. As he did so adeptly in Booker finalist Real Life and the bestselling The Late Americans, Brandon Taylor brings to life in Minor Black Figures a fascinating set of characters, this time in the competitive art world, and the lives they lead with each and on their own. Minor Black Figures is an involving and tender portrait of friendship, creativity, and the connections between them.
Punk-In
BrodieMy rock band has reached the pinnacle of success but fame has its price. Sooner or later, people let you down or sell you out. Except Ivan Cross. My manager, my muse, my obsession. There's nothing in this world that I want more than Van. And I always get what I want.VanFour years ago, I was selected to manage a hot new band called Wayward Lane. I knew I was in for an exciting ride - and a world of trouble - and it's all because of their lead singer, the provocative Brodie James. We've always butted heads but lately, that tension is higher. When Brodie insists on an impromptu concert in New Orleans at Halloween, I make it happen. The city, the food, the music, it's intoxicating. So is Brodie, and I'm not sure I can resist his pull any longer. Even though Brodie could have anyone he wants, all wants is me.Punk-In is a bi awakening, age gap, friends to lovers MM romance filled with sizzling chemistry, an unforgettable Halloween concert, and a HEA fit for a rockstar.
The Alpha and Omega of All Viruses
The digital entity Odyssey is on the ultimate journey where he must look inwards to explore his own mind before taking a mind expanding journey to find himself in the cosmos, while still watching over his human friends who are doing everything they can to protect his identity from overreaching politicians who only view him as a threat to their way of life.
Cloven
Erica and Lauren love each other. But this is not a love story.The couple should've broken up years ago-and they have, multiple times. But no matter how many times they call it quits, they can't let go. And it's slowly unraveling them both.For Erica, every breakup is a fresh wound, leaving a gaping hole where only anxiety spirals. She needs Lauren to choose her, fully and finally. But Lauren would rather escape into her video games than rehash past arguments. And the mystical, magical world of The Witches of Endor is more enticing than reality.Two witches, Tasin and Seadah, share a love that feels effortless and fated. Tasin's consumed with having her first vision while all of the wizards and fairies are more concerned with Seadah's glowing, green-eyed temper. But their connection is undeniable and the romance that surges between them is something out of a fairytale.Why can't Erica and Lauren's relationship be that easy?Or maybe the better question is: In an unmagical world, can love ever be enough?
A Forbidden Love
In the shadow of Langley Hall, young Thomas Cooper navigates the complexities of friendship, duty and love in Edwardian England. As the son of a tenant farmer, Thomas forms an unlikely bond with Lord John Langley and Prince Christian, two boys from vastly different worlds. Their shared adventures and deepening connections are tested by the rigid boundaries of class and the looming threat of war in the summer of 1914. When tragedy strikes, Thomas is thrust into a role that demands unwavering loyalty and discretion. As he rises through the ranks of service, he must confront his own desires and the painful secrets that haunt him. "Thomas' Tale", is a poignant exploration of love, loss and the enduring power of friendship in the face of society's constraints. Spanning seven decades of British history, Thomas' story chronicles his life from the fields of Norfolk, to a post-war life that includes a liberating road trip across the United States, and also reflects the many changes in social attitudes towards the LBGTQ+ communities.
Prince of Lies
Rowe Prince is many things.Gorgeous? Yes.Unintentionally hilarious? Absolutely.The hottest, sunshiniest virgin to ever set foot in Manhattan? Oh, yeah.One thing he's not, though, is a reclusive billionaire named Sterling Chase who supposedly founded my company. So when the man (literally) stumbles into a charity gala saying precisely that, I do what anyone would: I set out to prove he's a liar.Except it turns out Rowe's ridiculous falsehoods are surprisingly... enchanting. The heart of gold beneath his borrowed tux makes even a jaded businessman like me start to believe in fairy tales. And there's no faking the heat between us when the man's in my bed.But when it turns out Rowe's lies conceal a secret that threatens the company I've spent years building, I have to choose: say goodbye to the sweet pretender I'm falling for, or risk everything for a man who just might be... the prince of lies.
