When Love Comes to Town
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The Best Children's Books of the Year 2014, Bank Street College
New introduction by James Klise
The year is 1990, and in his hometown of Dublin, Ireland, Neil Byrne plays rugby, keeps up with the in-crowd at his school, and is just a regular guy. A guy who's gay. It's a secret he keeps from the wider world as he explores the city at night and struggles to figure out how to reveal his real self—and to whom. First published in Ireland in 1993 and compared to The Catcher in the Rye by critics, Tom Lennon's When Love Comes to Town is told with honesty, humor and originality.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An Irish teen slowly comes out as gay in a 20th-anniversary edition of a novel written under a pseudonym, available in the U.S. for the first time. Growing up in the 1990s, Neil Byrne feels lonely and isolated living in Dublin. After he tells a few allies about his sexuality, forms a community at a local gay bar, and starts seeing an attractive older boy, he grows more confident in his identity. Still, Neil fears being rejected by his family and friends if he reveals his secret. Lennon throws a slew of problems in Neil's way, making the novel feel somewhat contrived and instructional. Beyond Neil's fear of being found out, he is beaten up leaving a gay bar, finds out a friend is dying of AIDS, and contemplates suicide. Neil's internal dialogue including imagined conversations with Jesus Christ helps readers understand the accumulating pressure he feels. As author James Klise writes in his smart introduction, the book is an important reminder of how many more resources and role models there are for gay teens today. Ages 13 up.
