Description
From the best-selling author of How To Write an Autobiographical Novel, Alexander Chee's award-winning debut is One of the great queer novels . . . of our time.--Brandon Taylor, GQ
Twelve-year-old Fee is a shy Korean-American boy growing up in Maine whose powerful soprano voice wins him a place as section leader of the first sopranos in his local boys choir. But when, on a retreat, Fee discovers how the director treats the boys he makes section leader, he is so ashamed, he says nothing of the abuse, not even when Peter, Fee's best friend, is in line to be next. The director is eventually arrested, and Fee tries to forgive himself for his silence. But when Peter takes his own life, Fee blames only himself.
Years later, after he has carefully pieced a new life together, Fee takes a job at a private school near his hometown. There he meets a young student, Arden, who, to his shock, is the picture of Peter--and the son of his old choir director.
Told with "the force of a dream and the heft of a life" (Annie Dillard), this is a haunting, lyrically written debut novel that marked Chee "as a major talent whose career will bear watching" (Publisher's Weekly).
Author: Alexander Chee
Publisher: Mariner Books
Published: 11/01/2016
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.45lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.20w x 0.60d
ISBN13: 9780544916128
ISBN10: 0544916123
BISAC Categories:
- Fiction | Literary
- Fiction | Coming of Age
- Fiction | LGBTQ+ | Gay
Twelve-year-old Fee is a shy Korean-American boy growing up in Maine whose powerful soprano voice wins him a place as section leader of the first sopranos in his local boys choir. But when, on a retreat, Fee discovers how the director treats the boys he makes section leader, he is so ashamed, he says nothing of the abuse, not even when Peter, Fee's best friend, is in line to be next. The director is eventually arrested, and Fee tries to forgive himself for his silence. But when Peter takes his own life, Fee blames only himself.
Years later, after he has carefully pieced a new life together, Fee takes a job at a private school near his hometown. There he meets a young student, Arden, who, to his shock, is the picture of Peter--and the son of his old choir director.
Told with "the force of a dream and the heft of a life" (Annie Dillard), this is a haunting, lyrically written debut novel that marked Chee "as a major talent whose career will bear watching" (Publisher's Weekly).
Author: Alexander Chee
Publisher: Mariner Books
Published: 11/01/2016
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.45lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.20w x 0.60d
ISBN13: 9780544916128
ISBN10: 0544916123
BISAC Categories:
- Fiction | Literary
- Fiction | Coming of Age
- Fiction | LGBTQ+ | Gay
About the Author
ALEXANDER CHEE is the author of Edinburgh and The Queen of the Night. He is the recipient of a Whiting Award and an NEA fellowship in fiction. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Tin House, and on NPR, among others, and he is a contributing editor at the New Republic.