By Lília
We might be approaching the end of Pride month, but we’re here to let everybody know that there’s no limit to when we should read about gay love, asexuality, LGBTQ+ struggles, romantic love and any other form of loving. Love is love, no matter which form it takes. If you’re heterosexual, it’s even more important to learn about any other forms of love other than the socially predominant female and male pairing.
So I asked our Jilles, who orders Gay Fiction in our Amsterdam location, to recommend new and classic titles from the section. Here is his selection:
Flyboy by Kasey LeBlanc
After an incident at his school leaves closeted trans teenager Asher Sullivan needing stitches, his mother betrays him in the worst possible way—she sends him to Catholic school for his senior year. Now he has to contend with hideous plaid skirts, cranky nuns, and #bathroomJesus.
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda meets The Night Circus in this standout debut YA novel, about a boy who visits a magic-filled circus in his dreams in order to escape reality, where his trans identity remains a secret. An ideal next read for fans of Cemetery Boys.
God’s Children Are Little Broken Things by Arinze Ifeakandu
Winner of the 2023 Dylan Thomas Prize.
In this stunning debut from one of Nigeria’s most promising young writers, the stakes of love meet a society in flux.
A man revisits the university campus where he lost his first love, aware now of what he couldn’t understand then. A daughter returns home to Lagos after the death of her father, where she must face her past – and future – relationship with his long-time partner. A young musician rises to fame at the risk of losing himself and the man who loves him.
Lie With Me by Philippe Besson
Just outside a hotel in Bordeaux, Philippe, a famous writer, chances upon a young man who bears a striking resemblance to his first love. What follows is a look back to Philippe’s teenage years, to a winter morning in 1984, a small French high school, and a carefully timed encounter between two seventeen-year-olds. It’s the start of a secret, intensely passionate, world-altering love affair between Philippe and his classmate, Thomas.
Real Life by Brandon Taylor
Almost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree.
An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends – some dating each other, some dating women, some feigning straightness.
Real Life is a novel of profound and lacerating power, a story that asks if it’s ever really possible to overcome our private wounds, and at what cost.
300.000 Kisses: Tales of Queer Love from the Ancient World by Séan Hewitt and Luke Edward Hall
A landmark illustrated anthology of queer Greek and Roman love stories that reclaim and celebrate homosexual love and sensuality, from artist Luke Edward Hall and award-winning poet Seán Hewitt.
For centuries, evidence of queer love in the ancient world has either been ignored or suppressed. Even today, only a few narratives are widely known: the wild romance of Achilles and Patroclus; the yearning love of Sappho’s lyrics; and the three genders introduced in Plato’s Symposium. Yet there is a rich literary tradition of queer Greek and Roman love that extends far beyond the prudish translations of these familiar handful of stories.
