Our Favorite Queer Books!

‘Noto’ by Adriano Sack is la dolce vita , love, death, friendship, grief, laughter. It evokes so many emotions, both good and bad. But it's mostly hopeful. Konrad is back in Sicily, specifically in Noto. He and his partner Adriano built a vacation home here, with their best friends right next door. But this time, Konrad is alone. More or less. He is carrying some of Adriano’s ashes with him. And Adriano’s voice. Adriano died suddenly and tragically, and Konrad is not yet read

‘When God was a Rabbit’ by Sarah Winman is divided into two parts: the Before and the After. However, Winman clarifies that it's “not really a Before and After, more as if they are bookends.” Eleanor Maud Portman, called Elly, grows up in Essex. Her parents are charmingly eccentric, and her brother Joe, who is five years older, is her constant companion and protector. Elly feels lonely and friendless, so one Christmas, Joe gives her a rabbit—God.

‘Still Life’ by Sarah Winman certainly does exactly that: leaving a mark. And the author shares a beautiful perspective on a world full of pain. Set mostly in Florence and London, this book covers almost the entire 20th century. The story begins in Tuscany in 1944. Coincidentally brought together at the end of World War II, Evelyn Skinner, an art historian in her sixties, meets Ulysses Temper, a young soldier. This brief encounter stays with them for decades.

‘Tin Man’ by Sarah Winman is set mostly in Oxford, mostly in the 1990s, as well as in London and France. At the heart of this story of friendship, love, and grief are Ellis, Michael, and Annie. The first half of the book is told from Ellis’s point of view. In the second half of the book, the readers read a journal written by Michael, Ellis’s best friend since childhood.

‘Demon Copperhead’ by Barbara Kingsolver is set in southern Appalachia from the 1980s to the 2000s. Damon Fields is born in a trailer home, still in his amniotic sac. Or rather, he has born himself to his unconscious teenage mother, out on some drug or another. His father was already dead before he was born. The only adults who care for him are the elderly Peggots next door, who are grandparents to his best friend, Maggot. Maggot is not considered to be man enough by many in

‘The Afterward’ by E.K. Johnston might be one of the best YA fantasy books (or maybe even the best one) I have ever read. A year ago, the heroes of the realm saved the king and all of Cadrium: a group of knights, an apprentice knight, a thief (all female), and a powerful mage, the only male member of the group. Now, each of them lives their own life, some happier than others.

‘The Mercies’ by Kiran Millwood Hargrave is set on Vardø. The climate is rough so far north, but the inhabitants know how to deal with it. The story begins on Christmas Eve 1617, when all adult men that were not too old to go out for fishing were killed by a storm. At this time, all over Europe and North America, innocent people, mostly women, were being burned at the stake for witchcraft.

‘The Mothers’ by Brit Bennett is set in Oceanside, California. The story centers on three characters: Nadia, Aubrey, and Luke. Nadia is seventeen and her mother has died. Suicide. She lives with her father and is struggling with her grief. When she meets Luke, who is a few years older and the pastor’s son, they start dating.

Vivek is dead. And no one seems to know what happened. ‘The Death of Vivek Oji’ by Akwaeke Emezi is set in Nigeria and tells the story of Vivek’s life and death through a chorus of voices—family, friends, lovers. It is a story about gender identity, queerness, friendship, community, and the constraints of silence and shame.

‘Utopia Avenue’ by David Mitchell is brilliant! It follows the short career of the fictitious psychedelic folk rock band Utopia Avenue with folk singer and keyboardist Elf Holloway, divine guitarist and singer Jasper de Zoet, blues bassist and singer Dean Moss, jazz drummer Griff Griffin, and their Canadian manager Levon Frankland.

‘Die Sonne, so strahlend und Schwarz’ (~the sun, so radiant and Black) by Chantal-Fleur Sandjon is a YA novel like no other—a tender,...

The first volume of 'Heartstopper' introduces us to Charlie, who recently came out as gay, and Nick, a rugby player who seems to have his life together.

'The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For' by Alison Bechdel was originally published as a comic strip from 1983 to 2008. The graphic novel...

‘Marriage of a Thousand Lies’ by SJ Sindu tells the story of Lucky. Lucky’s family is from Sri Lanka and tries to live by Hindu...

‘Felix Ever After’ by Kacen Callender is a wonderful coming of age book that I wish I could have read as a teenager. It's incredibly...

‘Cantoras’ by Carolina De Robertis is a beautiful story of friendship and love between women during and after the Uruguayan dictatorship...