What Belongs to You
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4.4 • 13 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2016 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION
"The first great novel of 2016" Publishers Weekly
"A rich, important debut ... an instant classic to be savoured" The New York Times Books Review
On an unseasonably warm autumn day, an American teacher walks down a staircase beneath Sofia's National Palace of Culture, looking for sex. Among the stalls of a public bathroom he encounters Mitko, a charismatic young hustler. He returns to Mitko again and again over the next few months, and their trysts grow increasingly intimate and unnerving as the enigma of this young man becomes inseparable from that of his homeland, Bulgaria, a country with a difficult past and an uncertain future.
Garth Greenwell's What Belongs to You is a stunning debut about an American expat struggling with his own complicated inheritance while navigating a foreign culture. Lyrical and intense, it tells the story of a man caught between longing and resentment, unable to separate desire from danger, and faced with the impossibility of understanding those he most longs to know.
MORE PRAISE FOR WHAT BELONGS TO YOU
"The first great novel of 2016... rivals books like Hanya Hanagihara's A Little Life or Ferrante's Neapolitan novels... The ending will probably destroy you. And in Mitko, Greenwell has created one of the best characters in recent years. What Belongs to You is a great tragedy, and Greenwell is a great writer." Publisher's Weekly
"Garth Greenwell's What Belongs to You is the Great Gay Novel for our times... an astonishing debut" The New Republic
"A project of rare discernment and beauty, and it is not to be missed. A luminous, searing exploration of desire, alienation, and the powerful tattoo of the past" Kirkus
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With detailed prose, Greenwell's debut relays the story of an unnamed American college professor, living and teaching in Bulgaria, who develops a sexual relationship with a nomadic male prostitute named Mitko. Initially meeting in public bathroom stalls at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, the pair shift their dates to the professor's apartment and eventually decide to travel to Varna, Mitko's hometown on the Black Sea, for a brief respite. However, Mitko's violent side leaves Greenwell's protagonist afraid for his own safety. The two part ways, and years pass before Mitko, ravaged by time and homelessness, reenters the professor's life. Now in a committed long-distance relationship, the instructor battles his erotic yearning and faces increasing discomfort around his former lover, suspecting the prostitute's acts of kindness and care are nothing more than a lure for financial support. The book breaks up the adult protagonist's story with a long middle section devoted to exploring the professor's difficult childhood, as well as his first love, and it is here that the man's struggles sexual and emotional come alive. Greenwell's novel is a brave and articulate psychological exploration of lust and desire, and though his rich language often carries the book (rather than the plot), the carnal pain on display is striking.
