In 1985 Chicago, Yale Tishman manages a gallery while his social circle disintegrates during the height of the AIDS epidemic. As he secures a collection of 1920s sketches, his friends die in rapid succession, leaving him to navigate survivor’s guilt and the bureaucratic cruelty of the medical establishment. Three decades later, in 2015, Yale’s friend Fiona Marcus travels to Paris to locate her estranged daughter. Fiona stays with a photographer who documented their dying friends, forcing her to confront how the trauma of the 1980s fractured her ability to parent and sustain long-term connections.
Readers of historical fiction and queer history value this book for its technical precision regarding the early years of the virus. It attracts those interested in the lasting effects of communal loss and the way memory functions across generations. The reader learns how the specific rituals of the gay community in the eighties provided a structure for grief when legal and familial systems failed. It provides a clear view of the intersection between art history and biological crisis, showing how archives preserve the identities of those erased by illness.
Inward-looking, contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Mindful Reader. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2018
- Language
- EN
