Showing titles in Coming of Age

Brought to you by Penguin It is summer, 1956, when fifteen-year-old Bridget first meets Isabella. In their conservative Connecticut town, Isabella is a breath of fresh air. She is worldly, alluring and brazen: an enigma. When they receive an offer to study at the Academy in Italy, Bridget is...

Twenty-year-old Daniel Serban loses his dancing job and threats of being outed to his family force him to flee Limerick, Ireland. Daniel fears his father and the other gypsy men will force him to marry his betrothed, or bring bodily harm to him for being gay. As chance would have it, he ends up in Cleary’s Pub, a gay leather bar in Galway where he meets the grouchy, ginger-bear Ronan O’Riley. Daniel had no idea how much meeting the Dom would transform his life.

After Matthew’s grandfather dies suddenly, four friends struggle to face the trauma of their pasts in the wake of this fresh tragedy. Leah and Jay, a couple since their school days, find their relationship tested, while Nathan deals with a vast and unrequited love and Matthew grapples with his sexuality. In the days that follow, Matthew begins to unearth his grandfather’s past. He finds a different life, full of secrets, and discovers that he and his grandfather may have had more in common than he once thought.

It's summer, 1984, in blue-collar Swaffham, Massachusetts. Mel is thirteen, drinking a Slush Puppie at the drugstore, when she hears a voice, ‘deep and movie-star dramatic, like Lauren Bacall': Sylvia. What follows is a story of transgender awakening. Sylvia's shameless swagger and tough-girl trans femininity is an affront to the Swaffham locals, and her presence triggers hatred and, ultimately, violence. But it is also a catalyst for Mel. Through her friendship with Sylvia, Mel comes to realize that not only is there a world beyond Swaffham, there are other ways of being.

Bettina and Bart have grown up as best friends, so surely they will end up together? After all, Bettina is young, rich, headstrong...and gay. Bart is young, rich, charismatic...and also, definitely, gay. Any doubts are dispelled by, in short order: that ghastly kiss; a torrid encounter for Bettina in the school boiler-rooms; and an eye-opening Parisian visit for Bart. Society will never stand for it. What else can they do but enter into a ‘lavender marriage’ and carry on indulging their true natures in secret?

First, there were the flamingos. And then there were two families. Sherry and Leslie and their daughters, Rae and Pauline - and Eve and her son, Daniel. Sherry loves her husband, Leslie. She also loves Eve. It couldn't have been a happier summer. But then Eve left, and everything went grey. Now Daniel is all grown up and broken. And when he turns up at Sherry's door, it's almost as if they've all come home again. But there's still one missing. Where is Eve? And what, exactly, is her story?

'Bold, dazzling, hilarious' FERNANDA MELCHOR 'A revelation' NEW YORK TIMES 'As sultry as the summer weather' GUARDIAN Stuck in a working-class neighbourhood, high up among Tenerife's volcanoes, a ten-year-old girl dreams of hitching a ride to the faraway beach. Instead she hangs out with her...

August is a God-fearing track star who leaves Enugu City to attend university and escape his overbearing sisters. He carries the weight of their lofty expectations, the shame of facing himself, and the haunting memory of a mother he never knew. It's his first semester and pressures aside, August is making friends and doing well in his classes. He even almost has a girlfriend. There's only one problem: he can't stop thinking about Segun, an openly gay student who works at a local cybercafé.

Welcome to Heaven, a 30-year-old slum hidden between brand-new high-rise apartment buildings and technology incubators in contemporary Bangalore. In Heaven, you will come to know a community made up almost entirely of women. They live hand to mouth, constantly struggling against the city government's plans to bulldoze their homes and build yet more glass high-rises.

Morayo Da Silva, a cosmopolitan Nigerian woman, lives in hip San Francisco. On the cusp of 75, she is in good health and makes the most of it, enjoying road trips in her vintage Porsche, chatting to strangers, and recollecting characters from her favorite novels. Then she has a fall and her independence crumbles. Without the support of family, she relies on friends and chance encounters.

Elfreda Raughn will avoid pregnancy if it kills her, and one way or another, it will kill her. Though she's able to stomach the gruesome day-to-day duties, the reality of preserving the Order's magical bloodline horrifies her, but the Sisters of Aytrium have sworn to pay a price for the safety of their nation. Elfreda wants out, whatever the cost. So when a shadowy cabal approaches her with an offer of escape, she leaps at the opportunity. As their spy, she gains access to the highest reaches of the Order....

New to a small town, Jackie and Paula envision a quiet life for their kids: a young adopted son and two teenage foster children, including the troubled Star. However, they quickly butt heads with their neighbor, Clementine, who disapproves of their lifestyle and is incensed when Star befriends her spirited horse, Comet. Haunted by past tragedy and unable to properly care for Comet, Clem nevertheless resents the bond Star soon shares with the horse.

Over a period of thirty years, three gay men struggle to define themselves and make their mark on a turbulent and unwelcoming world that is so filled with anger that love has become a luxury. The townsfolk describe him as “prettier than a boy should be.” ELI APPLE is embarrassed by such remarks but soon learns to celebrate all the pleasures his beauty invites. He possesses the voice of an angel and the sound of his tender falsetto echoes throughout the green forests that surround his New England home.

Long ago, Andrew made a childhood wish and kept it in a silver box. When it finally comes true, he wishes he hadn’t.... Long ago, Ben made a promise, and he had a dream: to travel to Africa to volunteer at a lion reserve. When he finally makes it, it isn’t for the reasons he imagined.... Ben and Andrew keep meeting in unexpected places, and the intense relationship that develops seems to be guided by fate. Or is it? What if the very thing that draws them together is tainted by past secrets that threaten everything?

A big-hearted, funny and sad novel about the messiness of love, family and belief LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR AWARD ‘Hilarious and timely, a dazzling debut’ John Boyne ‘Bustling, bubbly, bittersweet fun’ Daily Mail ‘Bulging...

‘An intimate story of self-discovery’ Orhan Pamuk A dreamy debut novel about the summer love that changes two girls at the edge of adulthood. In the heat and the green haze that seemed to surround us both like a physical presence, I felt intensely awake. One afternoon at the start of summer...

LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST A vibrant and intimate novel about growing up, first love, and all the joy and heartbreak of competitive high school basketball, from the Lambda Literary Award–winning author of I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself “Deeply affecting . . . Crane’s writing...

Having left his tennis school, young jackal Rocky N'Guwe has to adjust to life on the professional tour, starting at the bottom. At least he's got the company of his mother and his boyfriend Marquize, and he can start earning enough money to bring his sister home from Africa. But between his mother insisting on coaching him and his boyfriend pulling him away from practice, Rocky's going to have to decide whether family and relationships are more important than the game he's given his life to--especially when he turns eighteen and adult problems pile onto that already-complicated life.

The disturbing disappearance of yet another young, red-haired gal from the Irish Travellers’ Caravan site has everyone on edge. Then Shamus Maguire’s 12-year-old sister, Erin, vanishes. While searching for clues to his sister’s disappearance, Shamus meets Lash Boswell, an older man from a Romani caravan. Lash decides to help Shamus, and they set out together to find the truth about the many disappearances.

Meet Sofie. The history of her sexuality begins when she loses her virginity to Walter the recruitment consultant. So, naturally, she thought that things could only improve from there. But she was wrong. It seems Sofie's been wrong about a lot of things. First, she thought she was into men: wrong. Then she met Frida and thought she was set for life: wrong again. Turns out, facing up to everything she thought she knew about herself requires a lot of trial and error.