Celebrate Pride this month by immersing yourself in the rich worlds of these queer books and storytellers. From tender love stories to emotional journeys of self-discovery, unflinching social critiques to suspenseful action and mystery novels, you will find a vast list of queer authors and characters that are unabashedly true to themselves. Find a new favorite and discover authors you’ll want to pick up any time of the year!

 

City of Laughter by Temim Fruchter

An ambitious, delirious novel that tangles with queerness, spirituality, and generational silence, City of Laughter follows a young queer woman stuck in a thicket of generational secrets and four generations of the women in her family, bound by blood, half-hidden secrets, and the fantastical visitation of a shapeshifting stranger over the course of 100 years. Blending Jewish folklore with reality, Temim Fruchter weaves a story that asks us how far we can travel from the stories that have raised us without leaving them behind.

“City of Laughter has the sparkle and fire of something truly rare . . . One of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking books I’ve ever read.”—Kristen Arnett, author of the novel With Teeth

 

Lush Lives by J. Vanessa Lyon

An NBC News Best LGBTQ Book of the Year, Lush Lives is a deliciously queer and sexy novel about bold, brilliant women unafraid to take risks and fight for what they love. An inherited brownstone that feels like a curse quickly becomes a blessing for a struggling artist when she meets a savvy, ambitious auction house appraiser and they uncover a rare manuscript in the attic. This discovery unearths secrets and threatens heartbreak as they explore the complex relationships between Harlem and its distinguished residents.

“Lyon’s hot, perceptive novel grapples with navigating interracial relationships and issues of authenticity and selling out . . . an unerringly satisfying read.”—Booklist, starred review

 

And Then He Sang a Lullaby by Ani Kayode Somtuchukwu

This award-winning novel by Ani Kayode Somtuchukwu is a powerful, luminous debut of two men that fall in love amongst all odds and forge a tender intimacy that defies the violence around them. And when a new, sweeping anti-gay law is passed, August and Segun must find a way for their love to survive in a Nigeria that was always determined to eradicate them.

“This moving debut is a touching queer coming of age story, a poignant romance, and, most affectingly, a damning indictment of the hate and homophobia that are all too prevalent in the modern world.”—Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind

 

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart

Booker Prize-winning author Douglas Stuart returns with Young Mungo, a vivid portrayal of working-class life and a deeply moving and highly suspenseful story of the dangerous first love of two young men.  With rich lyricism and giving full voice to people rarely acknowledged in the literary world, Stuart writes a gripping and revealing story about the bounds of masculinity, the divisions of sectarianism, the violence faced by many queer people, and the dangers of loving someone too much.

“It’s hard to imagine a more disquieting and powerful work of fiction will be published anytime soon about the perils of being different.”—Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air

 

Prophet by Sin Blaché and Helen Macdonald

Nostalgia has never been more deadly. Prophet is an electric debut, a tantalizing adventure fusing noir, sci-fi and a slow burn queer romance—set in a universe just one perilous step from our own. Two reluctantly partnered intelligence agents uncover a deadly, ever-shifting substance called Prophet and soon enter a gruesome and bizarre battle for the safety of the world.

“A crackling, shape-shifting romp with big ideas and a bigger heart . . . A delight.”—C Pam Zhang

 

Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park

A funny, transporting, surprising, and poignant novel that was one of the highest selling debuts of recent years in Korea, Love in the Big City tells the story of a young gay man searching for happiness in the lonely city of Seoul. Brilliantly written and filled with powerful sensory descriptions and both humor and emotion, this story is an exploration of millennial loneliness as well as the joys of queer life.

“It’s a shimmering addition to the recent genre of novels chronicling queer millennial malaise.”—Bobby Finger, New York Times Book Review

 

a “Working Life” by Eileen Myles

Engaging with permanence and mortality, danger and safety, fear, and wonder, the poems in a “Working Life” are transfixed on the everyday. Myles’s lines unabashedly sing the happy contradictions of love and sex, spill over with warnings about climate change and capitalism, and also find transcendent wonder in the landscapes and animals around us, and in the solitary and collective act of caring for one another and our world.

“An indispensable book about friendship and intimacy; I alternately laughed and shivered as I turned the pages.”—Kit Fan, The Guardian

 

Brother Alive by Zain Khalid

From the National Book Award “5 Under 35” Honoree, comes an astonishing debut novel about family, sexuality, and capitalist systems of control, following three adopted brothers who live above a mosque in Staten Island with their imam father. Brother Alive questions the nature of belief and explores the possibility of reunion for those who are broken.

“A novel with the polish and warmth of a stone smoothed in the hand after a lifetime of loving worry—original, darkly witty, sometimes bitter, and so very wise. And certainly the debut of a major new writer.”—Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

 

Past Lying by Val McDermid

A cold case turns hot when the National Library discovers documents that could be evidence in the archive of a recently deceased crime novelist. What unspools is a twisted game of betrayal and revenge, and as Karen and her team attempt to disentangle fact from fiction, it becomes clear that their investigation is more complicated than they ever imagined.

“The Queen of Crime shows no sign of abdicating. Past Lying is as complex, as satisfying and as readable as anything she’s written – which makes it another jewel in Val McDermid’s crown.”—Mick Herron, author of The Secret Hours

 

Queer by William S. Burroughs

Both an unflinching autobiographical self-portrait and a coruscatingly political novel, Queer is both Burroughs’s only realist love story and a montage of comic-grotesque fantasies. A haunting tale of possession and exorcism, this cult classic features Burroughs’ trademark maniacal mix of self-lacerating humor and the ugly American at his ugliest.

“Burroughs’s voice is hard, derisive, inventive, free, funny, serious, poetic, indelibly American.”—Joan Didion

 

Full Service by Scotty Bowers

Full Service is not only a fascinating chronicle of Hollywood’s sexual underground, but an exposé on the hypocrisy of the major studios. Bowers provides a lost chapter in the history of the sexual revolution and is a testament to a man who provided sex, support, and affection to countless people.

“In this shocking exposé, Bowers finally reveals his sexual liaisons with the rich and famous, sparing no details along the way.” —The New York Post

 

City of Night by John Rechy

Stylistically bold and inventive, Rechy is unflinching in his portrayal of one hustling “youngman” and his search for self-knowledge within the neon-lit world of hustlers, drag queens, and the denizens of their world. From El Paso to Times Square, from Pershing Square to the French Quarter, Rechy delivers a portrait of the edges of America that has lost none of its power to move and exhilarate.

“Rechy’s tone rings absolutely true, is absolutely his own, and he has the kind of discipline which allows him a rare and beautiful recklessness . . . This is a most humbling and liberating achievement.” —James Baldwin

 

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

The astonishing debut novel from the acclaimed bestselling author Akwaeke Emezi, Freshwater tells the story of Ada, an unusual child who is a source of deep concern to her southern Nigerian family. Written with stylistic brilliance and based in the author’s realities, Freshwater dazzles with ferocious energy and serpentine grace.

“A witchy, electrifying story of danger and compulsion.”—Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal 

 

Medusa of the Roses by Navid Sinaki

Sinaki’s cinematic debut follows Anjir, who sets off on a quest through Iran after the disappearance of his boyfriend. Steeped in ancient Persian and Greek myths, and brimming with poetic vulnerability, subversive bite, and noirish grit, Medusa of the Roses is a page-turning wallop of a story.

“Sexy, raw, and perfectly paced, Medusa of the Roses will get under your skin.”—Julia Fine, author of Maddalena and the Dark

 

Frighten the Horses by Oliver Radclyffe

Frighten the Horses is a sharply written trans man’s coming of age story about a housewife who comes out as a lesbian and tentatively, at first, steps into the world of queerness. With growing courage and the support of his newfound community, Oliver is finally able to face the question of his gender identity and become the man he is supposed to be.

“A valuable alternate narrative to the loss and pain that queer history has too often insisted on.”—Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, New York Times

 

Mr. Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo

Now a BBC tv show, available to watch on BritBox.

This groundbreaking, hilarious novel by Booker Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo follows two older gay Caribbean men living in London reckoning with being closeted in a rapidly changing world. Mr. Loverman explodes cultural myths and shows the extent of what can happen when people fear the consequences of being true to themselves.

“[Mr. Loverman is] Brokeback Mountain with ackee and saltfish and old people.”—Dawn French

 

Circular Motion by Alex Foster

In this brilliant literary debut that imagines a world literally spinning out of control the acceleration of the Earth’s spin begins gradually, but as the Earth spins faster and faster, Tanner (a young man employed at CWC—the global operator responsible for the phenomenon) and Winnie (a teen activist protesting CWC) must work together to uncover a shameful secret before the Earth spins so fast that even gravity might lose its grip. A propulsive exploration of capitalism, technology, and our place within a system that dwarfs us.

“Circular Motion is a gift: every paragraph offers something to make you think, laugh, feel, or simply look up from the page and sigh in awe or recognition.”—Jonathan Safran Foer

 

Days of Light by Megan Hunter

Inspired by the influential artists and intellectuals of the Bloomsbury Group, Days of Light is a sweeping, sensual historical novel of art, desire, and faith set against the backdrop of a changing England. In a chronicle of six days across six decades, Hunter captures the galvanic love and transformative moments that define a winding, beautiful life.

“This is a tale of female emancipation that would have made Woolf proud.”—Miriam Balaneseu, The Observer

 

And keep an eye out for these forthcoming queer titles!

 

Hotshot by River Selby

Out August 12^th.

This fierce debut that navigates the personal and environmental dangers of wildland firefighting, of the struggles that River—then known as Ana—encountered, and the constraints of what it means to be female-bodied in a male-dominated industry. A work of rare intimacy, Hotshot provides new insight into fire, the people who fight it, and the diversity of ecosystems dependent on this elemental force.

“Ostensibly about fire-fighting, Hotshot turns out to be a beautiful reflection on justice, the environment, the self, and much more.”—George Saunders, Booker Prize-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo

 

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine

Out September 2^nd.

From the winner of PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction comes a tragicomic love story set in Lebanon, a modern saga of family, memory, and the unbreakable attachment of a son and his mother. Told in Raja’s irresistible and wickedly funny voice, the novel dances across six decades to tell the unforgettable story of a singular life and its absurdities—a tale of mistakes, self-discovery, trauma, and maybe even forgiveness.

“A peculiar but lively and humane book [and] a sharp exploration of resilience in dark times.”—Kirkus Reviews

 

Queer Enlightenments by Anthony Delaney

Out October 7^th.

In this evocative, wonderfully lively correction to the historical record, Dr. Anthony Delaney illuminates the hard-fought lives of remarkable queer people in the “long eighteenth-century” that have long been lost to the annals of time. Journey through the taverns, prisons, and cruising grounds of a bygone era and into the lives of aristocrats, tradesmen, and sex workers who won or lost their lives in the pursuit of sexual freedom.

 

We Had a Hunch by Tom Ryan

Out October 14^th.

USA Today bestseller and Lambda Award winner Tom Ryan is back with a thrilling mystery novel that asks a simple question: what happens to your favorite teen detectives when they grow up? We Had a Hunch follows twins Alice and Samantha VanDyne and Joey O’Day—teen sleuth sensations in 2000—as they’re brought back to their small town twenty-five years after putting away a serial killer known as The Janitor when a new murder matching his M.O. calls into question everything that happened all those years ago.