Real Life

by Brandon Taylor

3.9 of 5 stars 5 ratings • 0 reviews • 16 shelved
Book cover for Real Life

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LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 BOOKER PRIZE

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE


“A blistering coming of age story” O: The Oprah Magazine

A novel of startling intimacy, violence, and mercy among friends in a Midwestern university town, from an electric new voice.


Almost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree. An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends—some dating each other, some dating women, some feigning straightness. But over the course of a late-summer weekend, a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with an ostensibly straight, white classmate, conspire to fracture his defenses while exposing long-hidden currents of hostility and desire within their community.  
 
Real Life is a novel of profound and lacerating power, a story that asks if it’s ever really possible to overcome our private wounds, and at what cost.
  • ISBN13 9781911547747
  • Publish Date 30 July 2020 (first published 18 February 2020)
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country GB
  • Imprint Daunt Books
  • Format Paperback
  • Pages 336
  • Language English