Perhaps, a new feature… How about a Post-Paris Book Club?! Recently, I’ve lived through three (three more, that is) stories with queer protagonists and whoa… No spoilers, I won’t give away any plot twists. Besides, the plot is often the least remarkable thing about a book (and a life). Should you read these, you’d be glad you done-did it! Then DM/PM/DP me & let’s discuss 🙂

Crossing by Pajtim Statovci

Tirana, Rome, New York, Helsinki… Sounds like an influencer’s itinerary of a pre-COVID month. Turns out, lifetime trauma can be globetrotting, too. This book will test the dams of your heart with its relentless tides. In with patriotic folklore, out with sexual violence, in with reality television trivia, out with the bathwater of dreams lost to too many (un)crossable seas. “Nobody has to remain the person they were born; we can put ourselves together like a jigsaw.” What-a-to-do with the edges of pieces that don’t fit?! AND. I guarantee… you will be rooting for all the wrong people till the end. 

Down the Hume by Peter Polites

Oh, I actively hated every other page. The book is that good. Remember your wildest hungover, magnify it by a bright dusty midday, withhold hydration and clock it at 272 pages. Hope as an obsession oscillates between things too mundane for literature and too epic for the daily grind; or both at the same time. Apocalypse countdown runs backwards: zenith, Zara, zoom, Zeus. I kept wondering how many gut punches does it take to get to the center of a lollipop?! The answer is “none of the above.” You can take Greek diaspora to Australia, but you cannot outgreek a slow-motion tragedy. 

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

I don’t want to say it’s the best book I’ve ever read. However, the queer teen within me says it’s the best book he’s ever read. Growing up not quite Soviet, I could never imagine such books being possible. Oh, to speak of alarmingly complex identities with such disarming simplicity. Read it. Gift it. Make sure your library stocks it. Follow @aridantebot for daily quotes! “To live is to take sides” say author’s social media profiles… I am forever on the side of Ari & Dante. 

P.S. [faints]

Send your queer literature recommendations my way!

@alexeytimbul