Our Favorite Queer Books!

‘The Confessions of Frannie Langton’ by Sara Collins begins in the Old Bailey in London in 1826. Frances, also known as Frannie or Fran, is on trial for the murder of George and Marguerite Benham. While in jail, she writes down her story from her childhood onward. Born at the turn of the century in Jamaica, Frances used to be the enslaved housemaid of John and Miss-bella Langton on Paradise. Until one day, Langton took her to London and ‘gave’ her to George Benham.

‘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

‘Tengo miedo torero’ by Pedro Lemebel is set in Santiago, Chile, in 1986, during a time of political turmoil under the dictatorship. The story is told from two points of view: an aging nameless queer person, who is trans and/or gay. The second point of view: Augusto Pinochet, Chile’s dictator.

‘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.

‘Sauhund’ [~sow dog, implying a bastard] by Lion Christ is set in Bavaria in the 1980s. Flori tries to find true love while continuing to flee from everything. Initially set in the Bavarian countryside in 1983, Flori is lonely. He works at a fashion store and lives with his parents. He can’t sleep. He is gay but afraid to tell anyone. HIV/AIDS has just been discovered, and the stigma surrounding this misunderstood disease is intertwined with being gay.

‘Kingdomtide’ by Rye Curtis is set in the Bitterroot Range (Montana) in 1986. The story alternates between Cloris's account twenty years later in her unique voice and the life of Ranger Lewis and the people around her, who are often weird. Cloris and her husband take a small plane to the mountains for a few days. The plane crashes, and only Cloris, who is 72 years old, survives. She is in the middle of nowhere with nothing around her. Still, she tries to find her way home.

‘Punainen erokirja’ (English: ‘The Red Book of Farewells,’ German: ‘Das rote Buch der Abschiede’) by Pirkko Saisio is the last novel in the author’s autofictional trilogy. Set in Helsinki and spanning several decades, readers follow Pirkko through her youth and early adulthood. Early on, she realizes that she is attracted to women. This occurs during a time when Finnish law penalized same-sex attraction.

‘The Final Revival of Opal & Nev’ by Dawnie Walton is set in the 1970s and the mid-2010s. Written like an oral history, it chronicles the musical journey of the unlikely punk duo, Opal and Nev. A few weeks after finishing ‘Utopia Avenue’ by David Mitchell, I stumbled upon this book and simply had to read it. I had unfair expectations of this book that it did not meet. But I’m glad it didn’t. Opal & Nev is its own story, and it's good!

‘Small Pleasures’ by Clare Chambers is mostly set in Kent in 1957and features an unexpected lesbian subplot that enriches this quietly compelling story. Jean, a single woman juggling her role at a newspaper and caring for her emotionally demanding mother, is assigned to cover 'female' topics. Her routine life shifts dramatically when the newspaper receives a letter from Gretchen, who claims that her ten-year-old daughter Margaret was conceived without any sexual contact.

‘Last Night at the Telegraph Club’ by Malinda Lo is set in 1950s San Francisco, primarily in Chinatown. The story follows Lily, who slowly begins to understand her sexuality. Lily is a good Chinese girl. She studies hard. Her mother buys her sensible clothes. Because she is a good girl. In the middle of the ‘Red Scare,’ Lily and her Chinese-American friends are becoming young adults.

‘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.

‘The People in the Trees’ by Hanya Yanagihara is a deeply complex and thought-provoking read. Norton Perina, fresh out of medical school, embarks on an expedition to the remote island of Ivu’ivu with anthropologist Paul Tallent. While Paul focuses on studying a 'lost tribe,' Norton makes a discovery that promises to revolutionize medical science and challenge ethical boundaries.

‘Ein simpler Eingriff’ by Yael Inokai is a quiet yet unsettling novel. It follows Meret, a young nurse who is proud of the care she provides at a private clinic known for its experimental psychiatric surgeries. Meret works closely with a revered doctor who claims to help 'troubled' women—those with addictions, mental health challenges, or who simply don’t conform.

‘Funny Girl’ by Nick Hornby is set in the 1960s and follows Sophie Straw as she runs off to London to pursue a career as a comedian. When she arrives in London, Sophie quickly realizes that life isn’t as glamorous as she had imagined. She doesn’t know where to begin—but through luck and charm, she finds an agent and starts auditioning.

I think of all the misfortunes I’ve had through the years, but none of them landed me on the street—not unless I chose to walk it myself....

Time is what stops history happening at once; time is the speed at which the past disappears. ‘Cloud Atlas’ by David Mitchell is a...

'Belonging' by Umi Sinha is set in India and Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. The book follows the stories of Lila, her father...

'Milkman' by Anna Burns is set in a world in the 1970s where two religions are fighting each other. Although the setting is discernible at some point, the story could be set anywhere where religious groups clash. The first-person narrator, an 18-year-old young woman, leads a rather uneventful life and has regular dates with maybe-boyfriend until Milkman (with a capital M) starts stalking her.