Born Straight

With his masculine, ironic, and feverish voice, Manuel García writes of men who hide inside words to avoid saying what the body has already confessed. His stories thrive on contradictions, half-truths, and desires disguised as exceptions simply to avoid being called by their real name. In Born Straight, the main story of this collection, an online meeting turns into an intimate, sharp, and irresistible conversation where attraction blends with the need to tell oneself a more comfortable version of the truth.

“It was not pleasure that frightened him, but the meaning that pleasure might carry the next morning.” Through dimly lit rooms, unexpected confessions, and masks beginning to crack, this collection explores the most ambiguous and human side of male desire. Because sometimes the first person we lie to, with stubborn sweetness, is ourselves.