The Last Dream – 12 personal stories written by film legend Pedro Almodóvar spanning from the late 1960s to today

posted Sunday, October 13, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

The Last Dream is film legend Pedro Almodóvar’s debut novel, delivering a tantalizing glimpse into his world, formed by twelve stories carefully selected from his personal writings dating from the late ‘60s to the present. The iconoclastic, two-time Academy award-winning writer and director reveals his singular mind as never before in this collection of twelve […]

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How to Leave the House – a convoluted comic tale about being connected to everyone and everything at all times

posted Friday, October 11, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

How to Leave the House tells the story of twenty-four hours in the life of Natwest, and his small-town odyssey in pursuit of the missing package. It’s Natwest’s last day before he leaves for university, and there’s only one thing on his mind: the deeply embarrassing package he ordered to his house – which still […]

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Our Evenings – British tale depicts one man’s life experiences with class, race, queer sexuality, art, love, and violence

posted Tuesday, October 8, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Our Evenings is a piercing novel that envisions modern England through the lens of one man’s acutely observed and often unnerving experience, as he struggles with class and race, art and sexuality, love and violence. Dave Win, the son of a British dressmaker and a Burmese man he’s never met, is thirteen years old when […]

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Change – autobiographical novel from Édouard Louis, about social class, transformation, and the perils of leaving the past behind

posted Friday, October 4, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Édouard Louis longs for a life beyond the poverty, discrimination, and violence in his working-class hometown—so he sets out for school in Amiens and, later, university in Paris. He sheds the provincial “Eddy” for an elegant new name, determined to eradicate every aspect of his past. He reads incessantly, he dines with aristocrats, he spends […]

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Disembark – magical stories of queer friendship and love, against the backdrop of city life

posted Monday, September 30, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

The stories in Disembark feature queer characters navigating new worlds, new circumstances, and new methods of relating to the people around them. With resonant imagery and clear, lyrical prose, Jen Currin weaves vibrant narratives showcasing queer relationships—be they platonic, romantic, or somewhere in between. A banshee shacks up with a lesbian couple in a rocky relationship, a […]

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Leonard Cohen: The Man Who Saw The Angels Fall – darkness is just the flip side of light

posted Monday, September 30, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Leonard Cohen has aimed high: to be all Jewish heroes at once. Like Jacob, he struggled with angels. Like David, he sang psalms and seduced women. Like Abraham, he moved from place to place and remained a stranger everywhere. But he never ceased doing what he did best: stepping into avalanches and reviving our hearts. […]

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The Sons of El Rey – tale about a family of luchadores contending with forbidden love and secrets in Mexico City, Los Angeles, and beyond

posted Monday, September 30, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Ernesto Vega has lived many lives, from pig farmer to construction worker to famed luchador El Rey Coyote, yet he has always worn a mask. He was discovered by a local lucha libre trainer at a time when luchadores—Mexican wrestlers donning flamboyant masks and capes—were treated as daredevils or rock stars. Ernesto found fame, rapidly […]

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Nothing Ever Just Disappears: Seven Hidden Queer Histories

posted Sunday, September 29, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Nothing Ever Just Disappears: Seven Hidden Queer Histories is an exploration of artistic freedom, survival, and the hidden places of the imagination, including James Baldwin in Provence, Josephine Baker in Paris, Kevin Killian in San Francisco, and E. M. Forster in Cambridge, among other groundbreaking queer artists of the twentieth century. Nothing Ever Just Disappears is […]

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Just Gone is a collection of international survival stories from LGBTQ+ individuals who have sought safe refuge within Canada

posted Wednesday, September 25, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Just Gone is a gripping collection of true stories, based on the fact that at least 70 countries around the world still have anti-homosexuality laws. In 12 of these, it is punishable by death. Jo DeLuzio speaks with nine survivors who sought refuge in Canada, forced to escape assault, torture, and even death in their […]

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What I Know About You – a tale of queer love that traverses Cairo’s grand boulevards and hidden alleys, to Montreal’s grim winter streets

posted Tuesday, September 24, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

What I Know About You is a heartbreaking tale of a family and an impossible love, torn apart by secrets and traditions in late-twentieth century Cairo. In a tight-knit Levantine Christian family in 1960s Cairo, Tarek’s entire life is written in advance. He’ll be a doctor like his father, marry, and have children. Under the […]

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