Giovanni’s Room

Description

One of the BBC”s ”100 Novels That Shaped Our World”

Baldwin”s ground-breaking second novel, which established him as one of the great American writers of his time

”Audacious… remarkable… elegant and courageous” Caryl Phillips

”Exquisite, a feat of fire-breathing, imaginative daring” Guardian

David, a young American in 1950s Paris, is waiting for his fiancée to return from vacation in Spain. But when he meets Giovanni, a handsome Italian barman, the two men are drawn into an intense affair. After three months David”s fiancée returns and, denying his sexuality, he rejects Giovanni for a ”safe” future as a married man — a decision that will bring tragedy, longing and regret.

”Gorgeous, fearless, tempered by dark knowledge and pain … the greatest American prose stylist of his generation” Colm Tóibín

”A layered exploration of queer desire … It is electric” Hilton Als