Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
A vivid and youthful coming-of-age rom com, set in 1950s Los Altos. As protagonist Lily Hu falls in love for the first time, her family’s past and her fears of rejection from her community and deportation from her country loom heavy. The novel is bursting with the hope and heat of first love, with most of the action unfolding between Lily’s school, Chinatown and the city’s underground lesbian club scene, while depicting the complications of coming-of-age as a gay Asian American woman in a certain time and place.
Maggie Terry by Sarah Schulman
This is one for fans of Vera Kelly. Just out of rehab, detective Maggie Terry remains troubled and bitter, still dealing with the death of her former NYPD partner and grieving the fact that her ex-girlfriend is now raising their child with someone else. She sets herself up as a PI and quickly gets her first case – but will she be able to pull herself together and solve it? Set in New York in the mid-2010s, the novel engages with contemporary issues – Maggie’s attitude towards the US president is abundantly clear from the outset. Maggie Terry is Vera Kelly 50 years on: gritty and self-sufficient, an authentically flawed protagonist who you can’t help but get behind.
The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara
Based on the ground-breaking, controversial 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning, this novel is a vivid and heart-breaking reimagining of the lives of the gay and trans stars of the Harlem ball scene in the 1980s and 1990s. It follows Angel as she forms the all-Latinx House of Xtravaganza, along with the stories of the children she recruits – Venus, Juanito and Daniel – and inevitably touches on violence against the LGBTQIA+ community and the AIDS epidemic. If you love POSE, you’ll love this.
What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell
Garth Greenwell’s debut – need I say more? A unique, often uncomfortable exploration of sex, sexuality and shame through the story of a gay man from the US who has relocated to Bulgaria to teach and his relationship with a young Bulgarian sex worker, Mitko. A little literary slim read, this is one you could take to the beach or on your commute this autumn and is a vital prerequisite to Greenwell’s recent novel, Cleanness.
Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
It’s Nigeria, it’s 1968, it’s the civil war – and Ijeoma and Amina fall in love. But Ijeoma is Igbo and Amina is Hausa, and they are both young women. Beautiful and brutal, I don’t want to spoil it by saying too much. Read it.
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
One of my favourite reads of last year, and the audiobook makes for fantastic listening. A stylish, sharp and sardonic depiction of sex, sexuality and relationships in the age of social media, centring on Ava, a twenty-something Irish woman teaching English in Hong Kong. Very of its moment, in the best way.
Scottish novelist Jackie Kay’s debut from the nineties. The death of renowned jazz musician Joss Moody sparks the revelation of his transgender status. Trumpet follows the reactions of the grieving public, his adopted son, and his widow, Millie – the only person in the world who knew Joss’ secret before his death. It also tells the story of the Moodys’ overwhelmingly normal, happy life together. Funny and powerfully tender, this is a book to curl up with.
The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan
One of my favourite books by another Scottish author. Written in 2016, The Sunlight Pilgrims imagines a major climate crisis occurring in the UK in the winter of 2020. As the climate shifts, so do attitudes towards 12-year-old Stella’s transgender status within her tiny, rural Scottish community. Fagan uses an atmosphere of change and uncertainty to reflect the hope and despair that simultaneously characterise queer life in the early twenty-first century, as well as to explore queer imaginings of the future. The novel also touches on bisexuality, polyamory and non-heteronormative family dynamics. It is important and timely and stays with you – a hopeful cli fi read for late autumn/winter, when things feel a bit cold and bleak.
These books (and ours!) are available from all your favourite UK booksellers now! We recommend supporting indie bookshops by buying via bookshop.org – and you can of course also order our books direct from us!