Exquisite Things
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- 13,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
From Stonewall Award–winning author Abdi Nazemian (Only This Beautiful Moment) comes the epic queer love story of a lifetime. Perfect for fans of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Shahriar believes he was born in the wrong time. All he’s ever wanted is to love and be loved, but 1895 London doesn’t offer him the freedom to be his true self, and Oscar Wilde’s trial for gross indecency has only reaffirmed that. But one night—and one writer—will grant Shahriar what he’s always wished for: the opportunity to live in a time and place where he can love freely. Rechristened as Shams and then as Bram, he finds what feels like eternal happiness. But can anything truly be eternal?
Oliver doesn’t feel that 1920s Boston gives him a lot of options to be his full self. He knows he could only ever love another boy, but that would break his beloved mother’s heart. Oliver finds freedom and acceptance in the secret queer community at Harvard that his cousin introduces him to. When he meets a mysterious boy with eyes as warm as a flame, his life is irrevocably changed, forever.
Spanning one hundred and thirty years of love and longing, this tale of immortal beloveds searching for their perfect place and time is a vibrant hymn to the beauty of being alive, a celebration of queer love and community, and a reminder that behind every tragic thing that ever existed, there is something exquisite.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Alternating perspectives depict two estranged immortal teens embarking on a century-spanning romance in this weighty novel from Nazemian (Only This Beautiful Moment). In 1895 London, Persian American 17-year-old Shahriar is discovered having sex with a male classmate and is disowned by his father. After rescuing pages of the original manuscript of The Picture of Dorian Gray from a fire, Shahriar learns that the pages granted him his wish for immortality. Later, in 1920 Boston, Shahriar meets white-cued Oliver, a talented pianist and wrestler hoping to attend Harvard alongside his cousin, who introduces Oliver to the campus's underground queer scene. When Oliver must go into hiding following an incident, he's devastated to realize he's become immortal as well, cementing his belief that he'll never see his loved ones again. Oliver reconnects with Shahriar in 1980s London, where Shahriar lives with transgender Jamaican American mother-figure Lily, who ignites within both boys a passion for queer activism. As the plot unfurls, time-jumping sections build in intensity, eventually revealing the climactic conflict that led to Shahriar and Oliver's fraught present-day relationship. The nonlinear plot is occasionally confusing, and the period-specific dialogue is somewhat overwrought. Nevertheless, Nazemian artfully spins a resonant, melancholy charting of the central duo's uneven progress toward social equity and personal acceptance alongside their yearning for joy and their stirring love story. Ages 14–up.
