After Francesco: A Haunting Must-Read Perfect for Book Clubs (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781496733511)

"Like Rebecca Makkai's The Great Believers, author-activist Malloy's newest novel is a heartrending portrayal of the realities of healing." --Oprah Daily, Best LGBTQ Books of 2021

Acclaimed author Brian Malloy brings insight, humor, and the authenticity of his own experiences as a member of the AIDS generation to this universal story of love and loss set in New York City and Minneapolis at the peak of the AIDS crisis. Published on the 40th anniversary of the disease's first reported cases, After Francesco is both a tribute to a generation lost to the pandemic as well as a powerful and universal exploration of heartbreak, recovery and how love can defy grief.

A BookBub Book to Read for Pride Month

The year is 1988 and 28-year-old Kevin Doyle is bone-tired of attending funerals. It's been two years since his partner Francesco died from AIDS, an epidemic ravaging New York City and going largely ignored by the government, leaving those effected to suffer in silence, feeling unjustifiable shame and guilt on top of their loss.

Some people might insist that Francesco and the other friends he's lost to the disease are in a better place, but Kevin definitely isn't. Half-alive, he spends his days at a mind-numbing job and nights with the ghost of Francesco, drunk and drowning in memories of a man who was too young to die.

When Kevin hits an all-time low, he realizes it's time to move back home to Minnesota and figure out how to start living again--without Francesco. With the help of a surviving partners support group and friends both old and new, Kevin slowly starts to do just that. But an unthinkable family betrayal, and the news that his best friend is fighting for his life in New York, will force a reckoning and a defining choice.

"This novel is fresh, well-observed, often funny, sometimes angry, and always real. I can't think of another novel about the AIDS years that captures that difficult, messy, intense age more accurately or movingly." --Christopher Bram, author of Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America

"In this highly recommended novel, the pain and rage felt by Kevin and those in the trenches with him is palpable and uncomfortable and real. So too is the love and warmth of spirit they manage to nurture in order to survive." --Library Journal (Starred Review)


Author: Brian Malloy
ISBN-10: 1496733517
ISBN-13: 9781496733511
Publisher: John Scognamiglio Book
Language: English
Published: 05/25/2021
Pages: 304
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.86lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.60w x 1.20d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 05/14/2021 pg. 1