Real Life A Novel
Real Life by Brandon Taylor, published by Penguin on February 16, 2021, is a novel that delves into the complexities of identity and belonging. Spanning 336 pages, this work presents a narrative centered on Wallace, an introverted young man from Alabama navigating life in a Midwestern university town while pursuing a biochemistry degree. The story explores his struggles with his identity as a black, queer individual and the emotional distance he maintains from his friends, who are entangled in their own relationships and conflicts.
Readers will find a profound exploration of intimacy, violence, and mercy among friends as Wallace confronts the challenges of his environment. The narrative unfolds over a late-summer weekend filled with confrontations and unexpected encounters that reveal underlying tensions within his community. Real Life addresses themes of self-preservation and the impact of past wounds, inviting reflection on the complexities of human connection and the cost of vulnerability. This edition is presented in English and offers a compelling look at the intersections of race, sexuality, and personal growth.
Official synopsis Publisher
A FINALIST for the Booker Prize, the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, the VCU/Cabell First Novelist Prize, the Lambda Literary Award, the NYPL Young Lions Award, and the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award
“A blistering coming of age story” —O: The Oprah Magazine
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York Public Library, Vanity Fair, Elle, NPR, The Guardian, The Paris Review, Harper’s Bazaar, Financial Times, Huffington Post, BBC, Shondaland, Barnes & Noble, Vulture, Thrillist, Vice, Self, Electric Literature, and Shelf Awareness
A novel of startling intimacy, violence, and mercy among friends in a Midwestern university town, from an electric new voice.
Almost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree. An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends—some dating each other, some dating women, some feigning straightness. But over the course of a late-summer weekend, a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with an ostensibly straight, white classmate, conspire to fracture his defenses while exposing long-hidden currents of hostility and desire within their community.
Real Life is a novel of profound and lacerating power, a story that asks if it’s ever really possible to overcome our private wounds, and at what cost.
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