Fiction
Blackouts. By Justin Torres. 2023. Farrar.
Torres, author of We the Animals, illuminates the relationship between two gay men of different generations. Ailing Juan will never leave the Palace, a “desert building fallen into disrepair,” but he’s hoping his younger companion might help him complete his mission to reveal the truth about the author of Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns, published in 1948.
Countries of Origin. By Javier Fuentes. 2023. Pantheon.
Twenty-four, gay, and one of Manhattan’s finest pastry chefs, Demetrio is undocumented and reluctantly returns to Spain. On the flight, he meets NYU student Jacobo and their attraction is mutual. When Demetrio falls ill at the airport, Jacobo takes him to his parents’ lavish Madrid penthouse, which puts their fledgling relationship on a very different…