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Boystown: Sex and Community in Chicago
by Jason OrneFrom neighborhoods as large as Chelsea or the Castro, to locales limited to a single club, like The Shamrock in Madison or Sidewinders in Albuquerque, gay areas are becoming normal. Straight people flood in. Gay people flee out. Scholars call this transformation assimilation, and some argue that we—gay and straight alike—are becoming “post-gay.” Jason Orne argues that rather than post-gay, America is becoming “post-queer,” losing the radical lessons of sex. In Boystown, Orne takes readers on a detailed, lively journey through Chicago’s Boystown, which serves as a model for gayborhoods around the country. The neighborhood, he argues, has become an entertainment district—a gay Disneyland—where people get lost in the magic of the night and where straight white women can “go on safari.” In their original form, though, gayborhoods like this one don’t celebrate differences; they create them. By fostering a space outside the mainstream, gay spaces allow people to develop an alternative culture—a queer culture that celebrates sex. Orne spent three years doing fieldwork in Boystown, searching for ways to ask new questions about the connective power of sex and about what it means to be not just gay, but queer. The result is the striking Boystown, illustrated throughout with street photography by Dylan Stuckey. In the dark backrooms of raunchy clubs where bachelorettes wouldn’t dare tread, people are hooking up and forging “naked intimacy.” Orne is your tour guide to the real Boystown, then, where sex functions as a vital center and an antidote to assimilation.
Boystown: Sex and Community in Chicago
by Jason OrneFrom neighborhoods as large as Chelsea or the Castro, to locales limited to a single club, like The Shamrock in Madison or Sidewinders in Albuquerque, gay areas are becoming normal. Straight people flood in. Gay people flee out. Scholars call this transformation assimilation, and some argue that we—gay and straight alike—are becoming “post-gay.” Jason Orne argues that rather than post-gay, America is becoming “post-queer,” losing the radical lessons of sex. In Boystown, Orne takes readers on a detailed, lively journey through Chicago’s Boystown, which serves as a model for gayborhoods around the country. The neighborhood, he argues, has become an entertainment district—a gay Disneyland—where people get lost in the magic of the night and where straight white women can “go on safari.” In their original form, though, gayborhoods like this one don’t celebrate differences; they create them. By fostering a space outside the mainstream, gay spaces allow people to develop an alternative culture—a queer culture that celebrates sex. Orne spent three years doing fieldwork in Boystown, searching for ways to ask new questions about the connective power of sex and about what it means to be not just gay, but queer. The result is the striking Boystown, illustrated throughout with street photography by Dylan Stuckey. In the dark backrooms of raunchy clubs where bachelorettes wouldn’t dare tread, people are hooking up and forging “naked intimacy.” Orne is your tour guide to the real Boystown, then, where sex functions as a vital center and an antidote to assimilation.
Bravado (Oberon Modern Plays)
by ScotteeScottee grew up around strong, brave and violent men and boys. Bravado is his memoir of working-class masculinity from 1991 to 1999 as seen by a sheep in wolves’ clothing, exploring the graphic nature of maleness and the extent it will go to succeed. Blood, spit and tears are set against the drunken backdrop of aggressive sensitivity and Oasis songs.(This text is not for the weak hearted – it includes graphic accounts of violence, abuse, assault and sex.)
Bread and Roses: Gender and Class Under Capitalism
by Andrea D'AtriIs it possible to develop a radical socialist feminism that fights for the emancipation of women and of all humankind? This book is a journey through the history of feminism. Using the concrete struggles of women, the Marxist feminist Andrea D'Atri traces the history of the women's and workers' movement from the French Revolution to Queer Theory. She analyzes the divergent paths feminists have woven for their liberation from oppression and uncovers where they have hit dead ends. With the global working class made up of a disproportionate number of women, women are central in leading the charge for the next revolution and laying down blueprints for an alternative future. D’Atri makes a fiery plea for dismantling capitalist patriarchy.
Bread and Roses: Gender and Class Under Capitalism
by Andrea D'AtriIs it possible to develop a radical socialist feminism that fights for the emancipation of women and of all humankind? This book is a journey through the history of feminism. Using the concrete struggles of women, the Marxist feminist Andrea D'Atri traces the history of the women's and workers' movement from the French Revolution to Queer Theory. She analyzes the divergent paths feminists have woven for their liberation from oppression and uncovers where they have hit dead ends. With the global working class made up of a disproportionate number of women, women are central in leading the charge for the next revolution and laying down blueprints for an alternative future. D’Atri makes a fiery plea for dismantling capitalist patriarchy.
Breaker
by Kat EllisKyle Henry has a new name, a new school, and a new life -- one without the shadow of the Bonebreaker hanging over him. It's been a year since his serial killer father's execution, and it finally looks like things are turning around for Kyle. Until he recognizes the girl sitting in the back row in homeroom. Naomi Steadman is immediately intrigued by Killdeer Academy's newcomer. She does not know he is the son of the man who murdered her mother. What she does know is she and Kyle have a connection with each other -- and a spark that Kyle continues to back away from. Soon after Kyle's arrival, the death count on campus starts to rise. Someone is set on finishing what the Bonebreaker started, and murdering ghosts from the past may be the only thing that can stop the spree. Told in alternating viewpoints, Kat Ellis's tale of mystery and horror is full of broken bonds and new beginnings.
Breaks Volume 1: The enemies-to-lovers queer webcomic sensation . . . that's a little bit broken (Breaks Series)
by Emma Vieceli Malin RydenBefore Heartstopper, there was Breaks . . . the enemies-to-lovers queer webcomic sensationCortland Hunt has made some dangerous mistakes. Now he's waiting quietly for those mistakes to catch up with him. Ian Tanner coasts through life denying the spark of anger beneath his laid back exterior. When school politics and personal lives become a battleground, the pair find that what they share may just be their only safe haven.Breaks is the story of two young men discovering who they were, who they are, and who they will become. It's a love story . . . but a bit broken.With millions of views and thousands of subscribers on webcomic platforms, Breaks is perfect for fans of popular LGBTQ+ graphic novels, such as Alice Osman's Heartstopper, who might be looking for something darker and more mature.
Breakup, Makeup
by Stacey AnthonyIn this sweet and stylish romance, two lovers turned cosplay rivals go head-to-head for a chance at their dream school . . . and maybe a second chance at love. Eli Peterson is a self-taught, up-and-coming makeup artist in the cosplay scene who is barely making ends meet. While they might be slaying it with their breathtaking looks, they&’re also trying to save enough money for top surgery and convince their parents that their artistic dream is worthwhile. During a convention, Eli hears about Makeup Wars, a competition that could change everything . . . The grand prize? A scholarship to Beyond, the best SFX school on the West Coast. The problem? Going head-to-head with the most talented up-and-coming makeup artists in the scene—including rival influencer Zachary Miller, their ex-boyfriend. Eli will have to juggle their makeup brushes, their rekindled feelings for Zach, and their self-doubt in order to win everything they&’ve ever wanted: a chance to chase their dream and a second chance at love.
Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder (Penguin Modern Classics)
by Evelyn WaughEvelyn Waugh's beloved masterpiece, with an introduction by Paula Byrne The most nostalgic and reflective of Evelyn Waugh's novels, Brideshead Revisited looks back to the golden age before the Second World War. It tells the story of Charles Ryder's infatuation with the Marchmains and the rapidly disappearing world of privilege they inhabit. Enchanted first by Sebastian Flyte at Oxford, then by his doomed Catholic family, in particular his remote sister, Julia, Charles comes finally to recognise his spiritual and social distance from them.'Lush and evocative ... Expresses at once the profundity of change and the indomitable endurance of the human spirit'The Times
Briefly, A Delicious Life
by Nell Stevens'A gorgeous, wildly seductive novel, shimmering with intelligence, humour and joy' - Sarah WatersIn 1838 Frédéric Chopin, George Sand and her children travel to a monastery in Mallorca. They are there to create and to convalesce, to live a simple life after the wildness of their Paris days.Witness to this tumultuous arrival is Blanca, the ghost of a teenage girl who has been at the monastery for over three hundred years. Blanca’s was a life cut short and she is outraged. Having lived in a world full, according to her mother, of ‘beautiful men’, she has found that in death it is the women she falls for, their beauty she cannot turn away from, and it is the women and girls who, over her centuries in the village and at the monastery, she has sought to protect from the attentions of men with what little power she has. And then George Sand arrives, this beautiful woman in a man’s clothes, and Blanca is in love.But the rest of the village is suspicious of the newcomers, and as winter sets in, as George tries to keep her family and herself from falling apart, as Chopin writes prelude after prelude in despair on his tuneless piano, their stay looks likely to end in disaster . . .Heady with the delicious scent of the Mediterranean, richly witty, and utterly compulsive, Briefly, A Delicious Life is a story about convention and breaking convention, about love – yearning, secret, forbidden, unrequited – and about men and women and the cruelty they mete out to one another.'Electrifyingly beautiful, exhilaratingly clever . . . sensual, original, intelligent and brimming with love' - Imogen Hermes Gowar
Briefs Encountered
by Julian ClaryWhoever said the afterlife would be easy...?The new inhabitants of an old house in deepest darkest Kent are about to discover the previous owner – a certain Mr Noël Coward – never quite left the building...A wickedly dark ghost story about love, scandals and things that go bump in the night.
Brighter Than the Moon
by David ValdesFrom the author of Spin Me Right Round, a fresh, modern story about learning how to love--starting with yourself--as three teens who know each other online meet up and find themselves questioning everything.Shy foster kid Jonas and self-assured vlogger Shani met online, and so far, that's where their relationship has stayed, sharing memes and baring their souls from behind their screens. Shani is eager to finally meet up, but Jonas isn't so sure--he's not confident Shani will like the real him . . . if he's even sure who that is. Jonas knows he's trapped himself in a lie with Shani--and wants to dig himself out. But Shani, who's been burned before, may not give him a chance: she talks her best friend Ash into playing spy and finding out the truth. When Ash falls for Jonas, too, he keeps that news from Shani, and soon they're all keeping secrets. Will it matter that their hearts are in the right place? Coming clean will require them to figure out who they really are, which is no easy task when all the pieces of your identity go beyond easy boxes and labels.Lauded writer David Valdes offers a heartfelt, clever, and thought-provoking story about how we figure out who we want to be--online and IRL--for fans of David Levithan and Adam Silvera.
The Brightonians Under Siege
by Daren KayHistory, mystery, and enough bitchery to meet your daily nutritional requirement for snark, secrets, and sweet sentiment! The Brightonians Under Siege is about a group of warring socialites coping with the bonkersness of the first lockdown. But on a broader level, it's about how resourceful people can be when they feel under attack. Under siege you might say! The important role played by humour and friendship. And in the case of our Brightonians: dabbling in the dark arts, too! Beginning in 2020 with an ominous card-reading that the fortune-teller hasn't drawn for 40 years, one question preys on his mind. Could this scary new virus he's read about be as devastating as the one that killed so many of his friends in the mid-80s? Only time will tell. But as countries close their borders and people are told to stay at home, one set of Brightonians becomes transfixed by his reading. Especially the Saxon symbols on which the cards are based. Deprived of their usual battlegrounds of parties and social events, they take to the internet - and the occasional illegal gathering - in a race to be the first to capitalise on this ancient magic. Peppered with flashbacks to the hedonistic 80s, before the arrival of that 'other' pandemic and the darker period ushered in as a result, The Brightonians Under Siege explores how differently the world responded to both viruses. But far from being a sad tale, this is a joyously, funny story. Perhaps not so surprising when the key narrator is a 73-year-old ex-porn star turned drag queen, keen to reminisce about outrageous gay discos and leather fetish clubs! At a time of unprecedented crisis, the stakes couldn't be higher. What answers might the symbols offer in the fight against this new virus? And more importantly, who will be victorious in the battle to control this most colourful of social circles? Too soon to reminisce about lockdown? Not on your nelly. Cut yourself a slice of banana bread and let the socially distanced party begin! Following the success of The Brightonians - described variously on goodreads.com as evoking the style of E F Benson's Mapp & Lucia, P G Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster and Maupin's Tales of the City - The Brightonians Under Siege is written in the same satirical style. Of interest to fans of The Brightonians, the sequel is a standalone work aimed at readers not familiar with the first novel.
Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress
by Vicki Eaklor Robert R Meek Vern L BulloughA lively memoir of LGBT activist Steve Endean-one of the most influential political strategists ever to lobby Washington DC!Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress is the spirited and provocative memoir that blows the lid off the complex machinations of state and national politics. LGBT activist Steve Endean&’s autobiographical chronicle, completed shortly before his death in 1993, tells insider stories that are sometimes rousing, other times infuriating, recounting the fight for lesbian and gay rights from the trenches of the Minnesota state capital to the Washington Beltway. Readers get a clear view of the political activism of building grassroots support systems, fundraising efforts, lobbying to rally support for bills, and the election/reelection of sympathetic political representatives.Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress dynamically recounts Endean&’s activism and instrumental leadership of the LGBT movement from 1973 to just before his death in 1993. From being the first Executive Director of the Gay Rights National Lobby, founder and Executive Director of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, and founder of the Speak Out mailgram campaigns for grassroots pressure on congresspersons on G/L rights issues, the author discusses with amusing anecdotes and self-effacing humor his strategies, victories, and failures as movement leader. This lively mix of the accomplishments in those crucial years and the "dos and don&’ts" of political activism is peopled with well-known and lesser-known movers and shakers on the political landscape.Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress gives an inside look at the political process, discussing: the political roots of Steve Endean-from his activist beginnings in Minnesota his rise from state to national politics the basics of fundraising lobbying representatives the LGBT internal conflicts building grassroots support the hypocrisy and lack of courage inherent in politics protest activitiesFrom the book:"I began to ge a sense of what a challenge I had ahead when Mayo asked what brought me to DC. Exhausted from a long flight, coping with tons of luggage, and very nervous about such a big move, I mustered the energy to explain earnestly that I'd been hired to be the first director and lobbyist for the Gay Rights National Lobby. To my shock, this distinguished gentleman doubled up with laughter and, in his charming Southern drawl, told me the Gay Rights National Lobby was dead as a doornail. He went on to suggest if that is what really brought me to Washington, DC, I might not want to haul all those boxes upstairs and perhaps I should just pack up and catch a return flight to Minnesota. That was my welcome to Washington, DC. Cold, white Minnesota never looked so appealing."Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress is stimulating, eye-opening reading for educators, students, activists in search of guidance in the political process, anyone interested in LGBT history and political history, and anyone who knew the late Steve Endean.
Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress
by Vicki Eaklor Robert R Meek Vern L BulloughA lively memoir of LGBT activist Steve Endean-one of the most influential political strategists ever to lobby Washington DC!Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress is the spirited and provocative memoir that blows the lid off the complex machinations of state and national politics. LGBT activist Steve Endean&’s autobiographical chronicle, completed shortly before his death in 1993, tells insider stories that are sometimes rousing, other times infuriating, recounting the fight for lesbian and gay rights from the trenches of the Minnesota state capital to the Washington Beltway. Readers get a clear view of the political activism of building grassroots support systems, fundraising efforts, lobbying to rally support for bills, and the election/reelection of sympathetic political representatives.Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress dynamically recounts Endean&’s activism and instrumental leadership of the LGBT movement from 1973 to just before his death in 1993. From being the first Executive Director of the Gay Rights National Lobby, founder and Executive Director of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, and founder of the Speak Out mailgram campaigns for grassroots pressure on congresspersons on G/L rights issues, the author discusses with amusing anecdotes and self-effacing humor his strategies, victories, and failures as movement leader. This lively mix of the accomplishments in those crucial years and the "dos and don&’ts" of political activism is peopled with well-known and lesser-known movers and shakers on the political landscape.Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress gives an inside look at the political process, discussing: the political roots of Steve Endean-from his activist beginnings in Minnesota his rise from state to national politics the basics of fundraising lobbying representatives the LGBT internal conflicts building grassroots support the hypocrisy and lack of courage inherent in politics protest activitiesFrom the book:"I began to ge a sense of what a challenge I had ahead when Mayo asked what brought me to DC. Exhausted from a long flight, coping with tons of luggage, and very nervous about such a big move, I mustered the energy to explain earnestly that I'd been hired to be the first director and lobbyist for the Gay Rights National Lobby. To my shock, this distinguished gentleman doubled up with laughter and, in his charming Southern drawl, told me the Gay Rights National Lobby was dead as a doornail. He went on to suggest if that is what really brought me to Washington, DC, I might not want to haul all those boxes upstairs and perhaps I should just pack up and catch a return flight to Minnesota. That was my welcome to Washington, DC. Cold, white Minnesota never looked so appealing."Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress is stimulating, eye-opening reading for educators, students, activists in search of guidance in the political process, anyone interested in LGBT history and political history, and anyone who knew the late Steve Endean.
Britannia's Glory: A History of Twentieth Century Lesbians (Gender Studies: Bloomsbury Academic Collections)
by Emily HamerThis title traces the lives of individual lesbians against the background of the politics and history of the 20th century, and shows the infinite variety of ways in which lesbians made their lives in Britain. This history has relevance to contemporary life and politics within the lesbian community. British lesbians have a long tradition of diversity, of action, of success and of pride, which is documented here.
British Colonialism And The Criminalization Of Homosexuality
by Enze Han Joseph O'MahoneyBritish Colonialism and the Criminalization of Homosexuality examines whether colonial rule is responsible for the historical, and continuing, criminalization of same-sex sexual relations in many parts of the world. Enze Han and Joseph O'Mahoney gather and assess historical evidence to demonstrate the different ways in which the British empire spread laws criminalizing homosexual conduct amongst its colonies. Evidence includes case studies of former British colonies and the common law and criminal codes like the Indian Penal Code of 1860 and the Queensland Criminal Code of 1899. Surveying a wide range of countries, the authors scrutinise whether ex-British colonies are more likely to have laws that criminalize homosexual conduct than other ex-colonies or other states in general They interrogate the claim that British imperialism uniquely 'poisoned' societies against homosexuality, and look at the legacies of colonialism and the politics and legal status of homosexuality across the globe.
British Colonialism And The Criminalization Of Homosexuality (PDF)
by Enze Han Joseph O'MahoneyBritish Colonialism and the Criminalization of Homosexuality examines whether colonial rule is responsible for the historical, and continuing, criminalization of same-sex sexual relations in many parts of the world. Enze Han and Joseph O'Mahoney gather and assess historical evidence to demonstrate the different ways in which the British empire spread laws criminalizing homosexual conduct amongst its colonies. Evidence includes case studies of former British colonies and the common law and criminal codes like the Indian Penal Code of 1860 and the Queensland Criminal Code of 1899. Surveying a wide range of countries, the authors scrutinise whether ex-British colonies are more likely to have laws that criminalize homosexual conduct than other ex-colonies or other states in general They interrogate the claim that British imperialism uniquely 'poisoned' societies against homosexuality, and look at the legacies of colonialism and the politics and legal status of homosexuality across the globe.
Broken Archangel: The Tempestuous Lives of Roger Casement
by Roland PhilippsPioneering human rights campaigner, patriot, romantic, traitor, LGBTQ+ martyr: this is the story of Roger Casement, one of the 20th century’s most complex and compelling figures.'A book of meticulous sensitivity and research' TELEGRAPH'Superbly written, genuinely exciting' ANDREW ROBERTS'Outstanding' JOHN PRESTONIn 1904, Casement became internationally celebrated for unearthing the grotesque violence of the Belgian Congo. Soon after he won even greater renown and a knighthood for his humanitarian work deep in the Amazon jungle.But his internal fault lines ran deep: neither fully Irish nor English, baptised both Protestant and Catholic, desperate for love but forbidden intimacy, betrayed in his only significant relationship, he was of the English diplomatic establishment yet an outsider who fought for Irish nationhood. His final act in wartime Berlin – a doomed scheme to promote an invasion of Ireland – overwhelmed him. And while his subsequent trial for treason brought him some resolution, it also took him to an unmarked prison grave.Casement was a contradictory figure made fallible by contemporary mores and his own unexamined emotions. Only decades later did an Irish state funeral finally assert his nobility above his notoriety – and only now can we fully understand his surprisingly modern and deeply relevant life and legacy.'In Roland Philipps [Casement] has found the biographer he deserves' MICHELA WRONG, author of Do Not Disturb'Vivid, poignant and hugely moving' HENRY HEMMING, author of Our Man in New York
The Broken Places
by Russell Franklin'Sunlit and dark, painful and joyous' David Mitchell, author of Cloud AtlasIn 1931, Gregory Hemingway's life begins in Kansas City, Missouri. The third and favourite child of an overbearing father, Greg is a paragon: a star athlete, a crack shot, bright and handsome and built like a pocket battleship.In 2001, Gloria Hemingway's life ends in a Miami women's correctional institution. Complex and contradictory, radiant and resilient, it is a life that has flourished against the odds and been lived to the full.Inspired by true events and spanning seventy years of the last century, this is the story of a miraculous existence, told with beauty and compassion. Transporting the reader back and forth in time, from Cuba to New York and Montana to Florida, The Broken Places explores what it means to grow up in the shadow of a man famous for his masculinity, to bear the weight of expectation and a tragic family legacy, and to finally step out into the light.
Brother: A Novel
by David Chariandy'A brilliant, powerful elegy from a living brother to a lost one, yet pulsing with rhythm, and beating with life' Marlon James, Winner of the Man Booker PrizeWINNER OF THE ROGERS WRITERS' TRUST FICTION PRIZELONGLISTED FOR THE SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE Michael and Francis are the bright, ambitious sons of Trinidadian immigrants. Coming of age in the outskirts of a sprawling city, the brothers battle against careless prejudices and low expectations. While Francis aspires to a future in music, Michael dreams of Aisha, the smartest girl in their school, whose eyes are firmly set on a life elsewhere. But one sweltering summer night the hopes of all three are violently, irrevocably cut short. In this timely and essential novel, David Chariandy builds a quietly devastating story about the love between a mother and her sons, the impact of race, masculinity and the senseless loss of young lives.
Brother: A Novel
by David Chariandy"A brilliant, powerful elegy . . . pulsing with rhythm, and beating with life." --Marlon James, Man Booker Prizewinning author of A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS"Marks the beginning of an absolutely mammoth literary talent." --Kiese Laymon, author of LONG DIVISION and HEAVYIn luminous, incisive prose, a startling new literary talent explores masculinity, race, and sexuality against a backdrop of simmering violence during the summer of 1991.WINNER OF THE ROGERS WRITERS' TRUST FICTION PRIZELONGLISTED FOR THE SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE One sweltering summer in the Park, a housing complex outside of Toronto, Michael and Francis are coming of age and learning to stomach the careless prejudices and low expectations that confront them as young men of black and brown ancestry. While their Trinidadian single mother works double, sometimes triple shifts so her boys might fulfill the elusive promise of their adopted home, Francis helps the days pass by inventing games and challenges, bringing Michael to his crew's barbershop hangout, and leading escapes into the cool air of the Rouge Valley, a scar of green wilderness where they are free to imagine better lives for themselves. Propelled by the beats and styles of hip hop, Francis dreams of a future in music. Michael's dreams are of Aisha, the smartest girl in their high school whose own eyes are firmly set on a life elsewhere. But the bright hopes of all three are violently, irrevocably thwarted by a tragic shooting, and the police crackdown and suffocating suspicion that follow. Honest and insightful in its portrayal of kinship, community, and lives cut short, David Chariandy's Brother is an emotional tour de force that marks the arrival of a stunning new literary voice.
Brother Alive
by Zain KhalidIn 1990, three boys are born, unrelated but intertwined by circumstance: Dayo, Iseul and Youssef. They are adopted as infants and live in a shared bedroom perched atop a mosque in Staten Island. The boys are a conspicuous trio: Dayo is of Nigerian origin, Iseul is Korean and Youssef indeterminately Middle Eastern, but they are so close as to be almost inseparable. Nevertheless, Youssef is keeping a secret from his brothers: he has an imaginary double, a familiar who seems absolutely real, a shapeshifting creature he calls Brother. The boys' adoptive father, Imam Salim, is known for his radical sermons extolling the virtues of opting out of Western ideologies. But he is uncharismatic at home, a distant father who spends evenings in his study with whiskey-laced coffee, writing letters to his former compatriots back in Saudi Arabia. Like Youssef, he too has secrets, including the cause of his failing health, the reason for his nighttime excursions from the house and the truth about what happened to the boys' parents. When Imam Salim's path takes him back to Saudi Arabia, the boys will be forced to follow. There they will be captivated by an opulent, almost futuristic world and find traces of their parents' stories. But they will have to change if they want to survive in this new world, and the arrival of a creature as powerful as Brother will not go unnoticed.With stylistic brilliance and intellectual acuity, in Brother Alive Zain Khalid brings characters to vivid life with a bold energy that matches the great themes of his novel - family, capital, power, sexuality and the possibility of reunion for those who are broken.