Fiction

‘Smart, hilarious and deeply moving’ Elliot Page, author Pageboy

‘Bellies announces Nicola Dinan as a genuine literary talent, a gimlet-eyed cartographer of the human heart’ Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti

‘Thoughtful, seductive, and entirely engrossing – Bellies is already a classic’ Bryan Washington, author of Memorial and Lot

It begins as your typical boy meets boy. While out with friends at a university drag night, Tom buys Ming a drink. Confident and witty, a charming young playwright, Ming is the perfect antidote to Tom’s awkward energy, and their connection is instant. Tom finds himself deeply and desperately drawn into Ming’s orbit, and on the cusp of graduation, he’s already mapped out their future together. But, shortly after they move to London to start their next chapter, Ming announces her intention to transition.

From London to Kuala Lumpur, New York to Cologne, we follow Tom and Ming as they face shifts in their relationship in the wake of Ming’s transition. Through a spiral of unforeseen crises – some personal, some professional, some life-altering – Tom and Ming are forced to confront the vastly different shapes their lives have taken since graduating, and each must answer the essential question: is it worth losing a part of yourself to become who you are?

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Big Gay Adventures in Education is a collection of true stories by ‘out’ teachers, and students of ‘out’ teachers, all about their experiences in schools. The book aims to empower LGBT+ teachers to be the role models they needed when they were in school and help all teachers and school leaders to promote LGBT+ visibility and inclusion.

The contributors range from trainee teachers to experienced school leaders and leading figures from the community across the LGBT+ spectrum, as well as LGBT+ students whose lives were improved by having an openly LGBT+ teacher. Each story is accompanied by an editor’s note reflecting on the contributor’s experience and the practical implications for schools and teachers in supporting LGBT+ young people and ensuring they feel safe and included in their school communities.

Compiled by the co-founder and director of LGBTed, the inspiring stories in this book are essential reading for LGBT+ teachers and allies. Let’s be the role models we needed when we were at school and show our students that they can be successful and happy as an LGBT+ person.

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‘Succeeds in inspiring a mysterious terror better than any other writer’ M.R. James

In an isolated castle deep in the Austrian forest, Laura leads a solitary life with only her ailing father for company. Until one moonlit night, a horse-drawn carriage crashes into view, carrying an unexpected guest – the beautiful Carmilla.

So begins a feverish friendship between Laura and her mysterious, entrancing companion. But as Carmilla becomes increasingly strange and volatile, prone to eerie nocturnal wanderings, Laura finds herself tormented by nightmares and growing weaker by the day…

Pre-dating Dracula by twenty-six years, Carmilla is the original vampire story, steeped in sexual tension and gothic romance.

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‘Astonishingly beautiful… The best gay novel written by anyone of our generation’ Harpers

‘A life changing read for me. Describes a New York that has completely disappeared and for which I longed – stuck in closed-on-Sunday’s London’ Rupert Everett

Young, divinely beautiful and tired of living a lie, Anthony Malone trades life as a seemingly straight, small town lawyer for the disco-lit decadence of New York’s 1970’s gay scene. Joining an unbridled world of dance parties, saunas, deserted parks and orgies – at its centre Malone befriends the flamboyant queen, Sutherland, who takes this new arrival under his preened wing.

But for Malone, the endless city nights and Fire Island days, are close to burning out. It is love that Malone is longing for, and soon he will have to set himself free.

First published in 1978, Dancer from the Dance is widely considered the greatest, most exciting novel of the post-Stonewall generation. Told with wit, eroticism and unashamed lyricism, it remains a heart-breaking love letter to New York’s hedonistic past, and a testament to the brilliance of our passions as they burn brightest.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ALAN HOLLINGHURST

The perfect read for fans of It’s A Sin

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NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER! The blockbuster danmei/Boys’ Love novels from China that inspired the animated series! This epic historical fantasy about a prince and the mysterious man by his side is now officially in English, for the very first time! Born the crown prince of a prosperous kingdom, Xie Lian was renowned for his beauty, strength, and purity. His years of dedication and noble deeds allowed him to ascend to godhood. But those who rise, can also fall…and fall he does, cast from the Heavens again and again and banished to the mortal realm. Eight hundred years after his mortal life, Xie Lian has ascended to godhood for the third time. Now only a lowly scrap collector, he is dispatched to wander the earthly realm to take on tasks appointed by the heavens to pay back debts and maintain his divinity. Aided by old friends and foes alike, and graced with the company of a mysterious young man with whom he feels an instant connection, Xie Lian must confront the horrors of his past in order to dispel the curse of his present. The Seven Seas English-language edition will include covers from 日出的小太陽 (tai3_3), and exclusive, all-new interior illustrations from ZeldaCW.

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FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF LIE WITH ME

It is the summer of 1916 and, with German Zeppelins on the skyline, the men of Paris are off at war. For Vincent, the sixteen-year-old son of a prestigious family, the tranquillity of the city sits at odds with the salons and soirees he attends. But, after an electrifying encounter with the enigmatic writer, Marcel P, draws Vincent’s desires out into the light, his ever-riskier liaisons with a young solider begin to shape Vincent’s future.

Translated by Frank Wynne

‘A short, bold and original novel which beautifully captures the romance and amorality of gilded youth’ Independent

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‘A fantastically moody, unsettling novel, with a teasing, enigmatic atmosphere entirely its own’ SARAH WATERS
‘Intensely lyrical and powerfully haunting… Sublime storytelling and Gothic fiction at its very best!’ SUSAN STOKES-CHAPMAN
‘A novel about wild, dissident passion, the profound dislocations of grief, and the intoxication of composition’ NAOMI BOOTH
‘A beautiful, hallucinatory dream of a novel’ J.M. MIRO

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There is a beast inside her, a monster. It wants to scream, it wants to tear things apart.

1816. Mary, eighteen years old, is staying in a villa on Lake Geneva with her lover Percy Shelley. She is tormented by his infidelities; haunted by the loss of her baby daughter.

Then one evening with friends, as storms rage outside and laudanum stirs their imaginations, Lord Byron challenges everyone to write a ghost story, and something fierce and wild awakens in Mary.

Memories surface of the long, strange summer she once spent with a family in Scotland, where she found herself falling in love with the enigmatic Isabella Baxter. She learned tales of mythical beasts, witches and spirits. And she encountered real monsters – both in the rocky wilds, and far, far closer to home…

Illuminating the past like a flash of lightning, this brilliant reimagining of the birth of Frankenstein takes us into a feverish world of waking dreams-where grief mingles with desire, and the veil between beauty and horror grows thin.

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PRAISE FOR FOR MARY

‘Like reading a laudanum dram’ ANNIE GARTHWAITE, author of Cecily
‘Rich, intricate and beguiling, this is a novel of enormous insight, great heart and incredible skill’ NELL STEVENS
‘A novel that tiptoes and whispers, woos and caresses like the darkest of fairytales’ JOANNE BURN, author of The Hemlock Cure
‘A literary creation story as bold, terrifying, and riveting as Frankenstein itself’ LAURIE LICO ALBANESE
‘A lyrical dream of a book that strays into the nightmarish, the gothic and the eerie with an assured elegance’ ELIZABETH LEE, author of Cunning Women
‘Mary reveals the rich inner life of one of the world’s greatest creative imaginations’ Sarah Sheridan
‘Creative confirmation of Shelley’s position as the mother of all goth girls. A moody and evocative reveal of the backstory (behind the backstory) of Frankenstein’ KIRKUS
‘A nuanced, beautifully atmospheric portrayal of a young woman’s intense inner life, foreshadowing Frankenstein’s themes of grief, loneliness, and the desire for love’ BOOKLIST

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The good news: she likes someone.
The bad news: it’s her best friend’s mum.

From the critically acclaimed author of Something To Talk About comes a sharp and sexy rom-com about a college senior who accidentally hooks up with her best friend’s mom.

When college senior, Cassie, spends her Friday evening at an off-campus bar, she isn’t looking for a hook-up – it just happens. Buying a drink for a stranger turns into what should be an uncomplicated, amazing one-night stand. But then the next morning rolls around and her friend drags her along to meet her mum . . . who turns out to be the hot, older woman Cassie just slept with.

Erin was meant to spend the weekend getting closer to her daughter, not having a one-night stand. But despite her better judgement, Erin and Cassie get along in the day just as well as they did last night.

What should have been a one-time fling quickly proves impossible to ignore, and soon Cassie and Erin are sneaking around. Worst of all, they start to realize they might really have something real. But is being honest about the love between them worth the cost?

Why readers love Mistakes Were Made . . .

‘A vibrant, intoxicating romance’ Ashley Herring Blake

‘Sexy and compelling, reading it is like being in on the most tantalizing secret’ Dahlia Adler

‘Both undeniably sexy and incredibly sweet. The story overflows with warmth, friendship and humour’ Olivia Dade

‘Deeply sweet: a story of how love can, and should, transcend societal expectations’ Anita Kelly

‘You’ll fall in love while rooting for this sexy, forbidden, and adorable love story’ Denise Williams

‘Kick[s] off with a hook-up that’ll have you fanning your face for days’ Buzzfeed, ’26 Highly Anticipated LGBTQ+ Romance Novels Releasing In 2022

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‘Tender, evocative’ TLS

‘Richly engaging’ Spectator

A Radio 4 Serial Fiction Book of the Week

‘A characteristically tender novel about a young man growing up in the shadow of one war and the whispers of the next’ Observer

‘A wonderful novel about relationships, particularly between a mother and son. A compelling read, beautifully crafted and sensitively written’ Irish Examiner
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Laura, a laundress, meets her young husband when they are both placed in service in Teignmouth in 1914. They have a baby, Charles, but his father returns home from the trenches a damaged man, already ill with the tuberculosis that will soon leave Laura a widow.

As a new war looms, Charles signs up for the navy as a coder. His escape from the tight, gossipy confines of Launceston to a more colourful life in action sees him blossom, as he experiences the possibility of death, and the excitement – even terror – of a love that is as clandestine as his work.
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‘Stands with the best queer literary fiction of a historical bent, illuminated as it is by Gale’s devilish wit and talent for both social observation and intricacies of character’ Sydney Morning Herald

‘A wonderful novel – a touching, utterly convincing portrait of the nascent artist’ Mail on Sunday

‘A deeply moving novel. The portrait of a complex relationship that constricted as much as it sustained is brilliantly done’ The Tablet

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THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER AND TIKTOK SENSATION

‘A marvel’ Marlon James

Brilliant, heart-breaking and highly original, discover Ocean Vuong’s shattering coming of age novel.

This is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born. It tells of Vietnam, of the lasting impact of war, and of his family’s struggle to forge a new future.

And it serves as a doorway into parts of Little Dog’s life his mother has never known – episodes of bewilderment, fear and passion – all the while moving closer to an unforgettable revelation.

‘Reminded me that every word can be an incantation, and that beauty does hard and important work’ Rebecca Solnit

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‘A gothic fairy tale, sublime in its creepiness’ – Florence Welch

Our Wives Under The Sea is the haunting novel from Julia Armfiled, the critically acclaimed author of Salt Slow. It’s a story of falling in love, loss, grief, and what life there is in the deep, deep sea.

Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep sea mission that ended in catastrophe. But It soon becomes clear that Leah may have come back wrong. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home.

Memories of what they had before – the jokes they shared, the films they watched, all the small things that made Leah hers – only remind Miri of what she stands to lose. Living in the same space but suddenly separate, Miri comes to realize that the life that they had might be gone.

Shortlisted for the Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize

‘A wonderful novel, deeply romantic and fabulously strange’ – Sarah Waters, author of Ghost Wall

‘Part bruisingly tender love story, part nerve-clanging submarine thriller’ – The Times

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A lyrical and uncompromising debut novel from a highly acclaimed musician and artist, who has achieved renown for the sharpness of her work, and its sexual and political imagery.
Jo is in a strange new country for university, and having a more peculiar time than most. A house with no walls, a roommate with no boundaries, and a home that seems ever more alive. Jo’s sensitivity, and all her senses, become increasingly heightened and fraught, as the lines between bodies and plants, and dreaming and wakefulness, blur and mesh.
This debut novel from critically acclaimed artist and musician Jenny Hval, presents a heady and hyper-sensual portrayal of sexual awakening and queer desire.

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KEEP YOUR ENEMIES CLOSER

As the case of the murders in the capital comes to a close, Mo Xi takes custody of Gu Mang, the traitor who was once his lover. With his betrayer now firmly in his grasp, Mo Xi believes he can manipulate Gu Mang into revealing the hidden secrets within his broken mind. Yet one question continues to haunt Mo Xi: Is Gu Mang pretending, or has he truly forgotten everything?

Tortured by specters of the past and bound by demands of the present, Mo Xi begins to lose hope of ever gaining the satisfaction he craves. But when Gu Mang’s memories finally do surface, what–or who–will he remember?

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Winner of the Booker Prize
Winner of ‘Book of the Year’ and ‘Debut of the Year’ at the British Book Awards
The Million-Copy Bestseller

‘An amazingly intimate, compassionate, gripping portrait of addiction, courage and love.’ – The judges of the Booker Prize
‘Douglas Stuart has written a first novel of rare and lasting beauty.’ – Observer

It is 1981. Glasgow is dying and good families must grift to survive. Agnes Bain has always expected more from life, dreaming of greater things. But Agnes is abandoned by her philandering husband, and as she descends deeper into drink, the children try their best to save her, yet one by one they must abandon her to save themselves.

It is her son Shuggie who holds out hope the longest. Shuggie is different, he is clearly no’ right. But Shuggie believes that if he tries his hardest, he can be normal like the other boys and help his mother escape this hopeless place.

Shuggie Bain lays bare the ruthlessness of poverty, the limits of love, and the hollowness of pride. For readers of A Little Life and Angela’s Ashes, it is a heartbreaking novel by a brilliant writer with a powerful and important story to tell.

‘A heartbreaking novel’ – The Times
‘Tender and unsentimental . . . The Billy Elliot-ish character of Shuggie . . . leaps off the page.’ – Daily Mail

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