Contemporary Gay & Lesbian Fiction

Anthologies

Faderman, Lillian ed. Chloe Plus Olivia: An Anthology of Lesbian Litererature from the Seventeenth Century to the Present (1994)

Combining the works of four centuries of lesbian and bisexual writers, by Willa Cather, Gertrude Stein, Carson McCullers, and others, a collection reviews the shifting concept of "lesbian literature" by exploring six different genres.

 

Novels

Bram, Christopher Lives of the Circus Animals (2003)

A comedy of manners explores themes of love, work, and success in the world behind the scenes of contemporary New York theater.

Bram, Christopher Father of Frankenstein (1995)

A unique mixture of fact and fiction recreates 1950s Hollywood in a tale of homoeroticism, mental disintegration, social commentary, and compassionate human insight surrounding the mysterious death of James Whale, director of Frankenstein .

Brownrigg, Sylvia Pages for You (2001)

Seventeen-year-old Flannery Jansen develops a lusty obsession for a female graduate student teacher and by chance ends up in one of her classes, but as the two become closer and share more than Baudelaire, Flannery learns more about Anne than she ever wanted to.

Cunningham, Michael The Hours (1998)

In a novel of love, family inheritance, and desperation, the author offers a fictional account of Virginia Woolf's last days and her friendship with a poet living in his mother's shadow.

Downing, Michael Breakfast with Scot (1999)

When Scot's mother dies, Sam and Ed, although childless and enjoying it, decide to take him in, only to get more than they bargained for when Scot reveals his love of feather boas and expresses his dissatisfaction with the house's drapes.

Donoghue, Emma Hood (1995)

Attending the funeral of her lesbian lover, Pen O'Grady recalls their turbulent fourteen-year relationship, which encompassed shared terms in convent school, Cara's personality oddities, and bittersweet infidelities

Ebershoff, David The Danish Girl (2000)

Set in decadent 1920s Copenhagen, this tender tale of love and marriage in the midst of fundamental crisis introduces a man who discovers he's a woman and the woman who will do anything for him.

Eugenides, Jeffrey Middlesex (2002)

Calliope's friendship with a classmate and her sense of identity are compromised by the adolescent discovery that she is a hermaphrodite, a situation with roots in her grandparents' desperate struggle for survival in the 1920s.

Holleran, Andrew The Beauty of Men (1996)

Lark's mourning over the loss of his youth and of friends and acquaintances, his visits to his dying mother, and his actual and remembered visits to boat docks and baths comprise a narrative of loneliness, aging, and obsessive desire.

Maupin, Armistad The Night Listener (2000)

Suspense builds to a feverish intensity as popular late-night radio host Gabriel Noone befriends a troubled listener, a thirteen-year-old boy who has endured a childhood of traumatic sexual abuse and who sees Gabriel as a surrogate father.

O'Neil, Jamie At Swim, Two Boys (2003)

In a story set against the backdrop of Dublin in 1915, two boys who meet at the local swimming hole plan to swim to an island in Dublin Bay the following Easter, but their plans coincide with the Easter uprising--a historic rebellion that changes their lives.

Price, Reynolds The Promise of Rest (1995)

Returning to his North Carolina family home to die from AIDS, Wade Mayfield induces feelings and patience in his attending, divorced parents that initiate a possible reunion and the perpetuation of a proud family tradition.

Revoyr, Nina Southland (2003)

Jackie Ishida, a young Japanese American woman living in Los Angeles, learns of the deaths of four young men in her grandfather's store during the 1965 Watts riot, and sets out to discover the truth about their deaths, along the way uncovering some long-buried family secrets as well.

Truong, Monique The Book of Salt (2003)

Considering whether he will accompany his employers, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, to America, a personal cook remembers his youth in French-colonized Vietnam, his years as a galley hand at sea, and his days cooking for the doyennes of the Lost Generation.

Waters, Sarah Fingersmith (2002)

Growing up as a foster child among a family of thieves, orphan Sue Trinder hopes to pay back that kindness by playing a key role in a swindle scheme devised by their leader, Gentleman, who is planning to con a fortune out of the naive Maud Lily, but Sue's growing pity for their helpless victim could destroy the plot.

Waters, Sarah Affinity (2000)

Visiting a grim London prison as part of rehabilitative charity work, upper-class suicide survivor Margaret Prior is drawn into the Victorian world of enigmatic spiritualist and inmate Selina Dawes and is persuaded to help her escape.

Winterson, Jeanette Written on the Body (1992)

A combined love story and philosophical meditation on the body as a physical phenomenon thrusts the reader into the life of a married woman and her erotic relationship with an unidentified lover who narrates the story.

12/09

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