This Love
A Novel
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- 11,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
An Autostraddle and Electric Literature Most Anticipated Queer Book
“We’re calling it… Lotte Jeffs’ novel is the new One Day.” —Sunday Times Style Magazine
An utterly charming and modern debut novel spanning ten years of extraordinary friendship, about soulmates, unconventional families, and the limitless, ever-changing forms love can take.
When Mae and Ari meet outside a crowded gay bar during their final year of university, their connection is instant, sparking a lifetime friendship. Stubborn and no stranger to breaking hearts, Mae needs Ari's bright light to guide her out of her self-centered ways. Reeling from a scandal in New York, vibrant, charming Ari sees Mae as an anchor keeping him grounded.
Though they are young, ambitious, and queer, both Mae and Ari secretly daydream about settling down somewhere with a garden, children, and dogs, building a life that feels like home. They make a pact: somehow, some day, they will have a child together.
In the decades that follow, Ari and Mae realize that fulfilling their promise will not be as simple as they once hoped. Navigating toxic partners and hidden secrets, combatting the heavy weight of grief, and relishing the spoils of flashy media careers, the two struggle to reconcile their ever-diverging paths. Although nothing goes quite to plan, Ari and Mae—alongside their dearest friends and lovers—come to realize that the messy, devoted, tight-knit family they could build together might be better than anything they could have ever imagined.
Page-turning, emotionally evocative, and bursting with wit and charm, This Love is a testament to the power of friendship and a love letter to family—however it’s formed.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jeffs (How to Be a Gentlewoman) delivers an endearing if overlong tale of a queer friendship. Mae, a headstrong lesbian, meets fashionable Ari at a gay bar in Leeds, England, where the two are enrolled at university. Mae is in awe of Ari, an American who transferred from NYU, for his effortless magnetism. She grows confused and jealous, though, after Ari comes out to her as pansexual—she worries he'll fall in love with another girl and abandon her. Their trust is further eroded by Ari's effort to brush under the rug a painful scandal that caused him to leave New York, involving his homophobic father and his affair with a much older professor. The narrative tracks Mae and Ari over the decade after their graduation, as they continue to negotiate the shape of their friendship and consider raising children together. The writing can be clunky, especially the dialogue ("By our age you should know for sure if you like red wine or white wine best," Mae says to Ari, frustrated by another woman's bisexuality. "It's a cop-out to say you like rosé. I don't want to drink bisexual wine"). Fortunately, Jeffs adeptly develops the characters through their flaws and transformations. Patient readers will be rewarded.
