Stephanie Cowell has been an opera singer, balladeer, founder of Strawberry Opera and other arts venues including a Renaissance festival in NYC. She is the author of Nicholas Cooke, The Physician of London, The Players: a novel of the young Shakespeare, Marrying Mozart, Claude & Camille: a novel of Monet, and The Boy in the Rain. Her work has been translated into nine languages and made into an opera. Stephanie is the recipient of an American Book Award. She has lived in NYC all her life.
It is 1903 in the English countryside when Robbie, a shy young art student, meets the twenty-nine-year-old Anton who is running from memories of his brutal childhood and failed marriage. Within months, they begin a love affair that will never let them go. Robbie grows into an accomplished portraitist in the vivid London art world with the help of Anton's enchanting former wife, while Anton turns from his inherited wealth and connections to improve the conditions of the poor. But it is the Edwardian Era, and the law sentences homosexual men to prison with hard labor, following the tragic experience of Oscar Wilde. As Robbie and Anton's commitment to each other grows, the world about them turns into a more dangerous place.
From the first time I opened the pages of this book many years ago, I fell in love with it.
There is nothing more tender in literature than the sensitive eunuch who falls in love with Alexander the Great, the first man to treat him courteously. Though Alexander returns the love, his energies are divided between his endless battles, his old lover, and his obligatory wife. The intensity of their closeness is kept bright by the boy Bagoas.
The Persian Boy traces the last years of Alexander's life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas. Abducted and gelded as a boy, Bagoas is sold as a courtesan to King Darius of Persia, but finds freedom with Alexander the Great after the Macedon army conquers his homeland. Their relationship sustains Alexander as he weathers assassination plots, the demands of two foreign wives, a sometimes mutinous army, and his own ferocious temper. After Alexander's mysterious death, we are left wondering if this Persian boy understood the great warrior and his ambitions better than anyone.
More than forty years lie between Forster’s beginning Maurice and its publication after his death.
I came to the novel already adoring Forster’s writing beyond anything. Clive, who is Maurice’s social equal and with whom Maurice is in love, will only love him as a friend though Maurice suffers, wanting intimacy.
When Maurice begins a love affair with the under-gamekeeper Scudder, it seems unlikely to work out because of the great class differences. Breaking the class barrier was almost as heinous as same-sex love. How much we root for the lonely Maurice and his proud yet insecure under-gamekeeper lover!
There is a wonderful book which continues the story called Alec by William di Canzio
As Maurice Hall makes his way through a traditional English education, he projects an outer confidence that masks troubling questions about his own identity. Frustrated and unfulfilled, a product of the bourgeoisie he will grow to despise, he has difficulty acknowledging his nascent attraction to men.
At Cambridge he meets Clive, who opens his eyes to a less conventional view of the nature of love. Yet when Maurice is confronted by the societal pressures of life beyond university, self-doubt and heartbreak threaten his quest for happiness.
The author, for whom Italy has always been a dream, sat down over a period of a few months and poured out this sensual, emotional novel about a love affair of two young men. He never intended to write such book, which proves my theory that we novelists are sometimes the bewildered recipients of the tales sent to us.
Again, it is the pull between Oliver and Elio which fascinates me. When Elio thinks back on the relationship many years later, Aciman writes some of the most beautiful passages in literature. The page shimmers, the words rise, and the story is more than it was ever meant to be. Sadly, neither young man knew what they had together until it was over.
Now a Major Motion Picture from Director Luca Guadagnino, Starring Armie Hammer and Timothee Chalamet, and Written by James Ivory
WINNER BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY ACADEMY AWARD Nominated for Four Oscars
A New York Times Bestseller A USA Today Bestseller A Los Angeles Times Bestseller A Vulture Book Club Pick
An Instant Classic and One of the Great Love Stories of Our Time
Andre Aciman's Call Me by Your Name is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents' cliffside mansion on the Italian Riviera. Each is unprepared…
Boyne is a master storyteller, enormously gifted in doling out a story so that it unfolds bit by bit before us. I am in awe of his skill.
After WWI, a young soldier called Tristan is compelled to visit the sister of a fallen comrade to deliver the sister’s saved letters to her brother. All we know of Tristan is that he has endured something so terrible he at times would prefer not to live.
What he does not tell is that he was intimately involved with her brother Will a few times, and loves him, but though the intimacy to which Tristan gave his heart was dismissed as nothing by Will. To give everything to another, and then to have the loved one dismiss and deny it cruelly can wear the lover to past endurance.
Which young man was responsible in the end for the conclusion? Unbelievable writing.
It's September 1919: twenty-one-year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver some letters to Marian Bancroft. Tristan fought alongside Marian's brother Will during the Great War, but in 1917 Will laid down his guns on the battlefield, declared himself a conscientious objector and was shot as a traitor, an act which has brought shame and dishonour on the Bancroft family. But the letters are not the real reason for Tristan's visit. He holds a secret deep in his soul. One that he is desperate to unburden himself of to Marian, if he can only find the…
Like so many marvelous novels, this one has traveled through the underground of the fiction world too little known, despite catching many awards and the intense praise of people such as Stephen Fry.
It is set in France during the final bloody months of World War I and features an unexpected love affair between two ordinary young soldiers, Australian and American. What is amazing is that the author is such a vivid, meticulous historian, such a fine military researcher, and yet can write so intimately.
I became so involved with Tommy and David. Will they survive the last months of the war and go on together hiding their relationship from condemning neighbors, or will the war cancel their great love?
Gold Winner -- Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award (War & Military Fiction) and IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award (Fiction: Romance)Silver Winner -- IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award (LGBTQ)Bronze Medal -- Independent Publisher Book Award (Military/Wartime Fiction)Finalist -- Lambda Literary Award (Gay Romance) Lance Ringel's Flower of Iowa is a sprawling tale of battle and romance during the First World War, the four years that tore Europe in half and hastened the end of an era. In the tradition of stirring historical novels, this grand epic showcases courage, the resilience of the human spirit, and the transformative power of love. Flower…
Saving Raine is a captivating tale of resilience, redemption, and the enduring power of love, penned by the acclaimed author Marian L. Thomas.
This contemporary fiction novel chronicles the compelling journey of Raine Reynolds as she confronts heartache, betrayal, and loss. Against the vibrant backdrops of Atlanta and Paris, Raine's story unfolds as she grapples with the aftermath of her husband's infidelity and tragic passing.
Through poignant prose and compelling characters, "Saving Raine" delves into themes of forgiveness, healing, and the strength discovered in confronting life's greatest challenges. Readers will be captivated by Raine's emotional odyssey as she unearths hope, redemption, and the courage to embrace a brighter future.
Raine Reynolds stands at the crossroads of despair and opportunity.
When the life you've built crumbles and the past refuses to release its grip, sometimes you need a fresh start-a new beginning that promises hope and redemption.
Once a celebrated author, Raine's life unraveled, sending her fleeing to the picturesque streets of Paris to escape the tormenting heartache that threatened to consume her. Yet, no matter how far she traveled, the pain remained her unwelcome companion.
Returning to bustling Atlanta as a senior VP for an ad agency, Raine is forced to confront a city steeped in…
