The Living Realm cover art

The Living Realm

Preview

Listen with Audible free trial

Free with 30-day trial
Prime logo New to Audible Prime Member exclusive:
2 credits with free trial
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks
Download titles to your library and listen offline
₹199.00 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

The Living Realm

Written by: Jordan Tannahill
Narrated by: Richard Armitage
Free with 30-day trial

₹199.00 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for ₹1,071.00

Buy Now for ₹1,071.00

‘Belongs in the firmament of great gay fiction’ DOUGLAS STUART

‘A beautiful novel’ SEÁN HEWITT

‘I tore through it’ JOSH SILVER

The stunning new novel from the acclaimed author of The Listeners, follows a British expat in Berlin who begins to see his dead lovers at a cruising lake on the outskirts of the city.

While cruising one evening by Teufelssee, a small glacial lake in the Grunewald forest on the edge of Berlin, a man spots a handsome stranger who bears an uncanny resemblance to his former lover. Only, Lukas died nearly thirty years ago. Yet the man cannot shake the feeling that it was really Lukas he saw.

Over the course of one long, hot summer with friends and lovers at the lake, this first sighting sets off a string of strange encounters. As the man learns more of Teufelssee, he finds himself venturing deeper into the mystery of the surrounding forest. He begins to wonder if these meetings are real or imagined, if they take place in the past or the present, and what they might reveal about the nature of time itself and his place within its flow.

Part ghost story, part love story, this ecstatic, sexy and exquisitely written novel offers an elegy to the ways our lives become entangled with history, the natural world and those we love.

‘A novel that rises to its subject: the whole of life’ GARTH GREENWELL, author of Small Rain

‘Full of love and wonder … transforms farewell into summer without end’ JEREMY ATHERTON LIN, author of Deep House

‘Mesmerising … I couldn’t put it down’ WILLIAM RAYFET HUNTER, author of Sunstruck

‘Tannahill captures so much in a slim, hypnotic novel’ TASH AW, author of The South

‘Remarkable … I finished in floods of cleansing tears’ JACK PARLETT, author of Flamboyance

‘An expertly crafted ghost story overflowing with life’ SAMANTHA JOSEPHS, author of Carrying

‘A deeply tender and mystical meditation on desire and aging … left me breathless’ HUW LEMMEY, co-author of Bad Gays: A Homosexual History

‘Feels destined to become a classic of queer literature’ TOBI COVENTRY, author of He’s the Devil

©2026 Jordan Tannahill (P)2026 HarperCollins Publishers
Genre Fiction Ghosts Horror Literature & Fiction Magical Realism
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Critic Reviews

‘It’s rare to read a novel that expresses so powerfully the wonder of existing in time alongside others …The final pages of this beautiful, hugely ambitious book amazed me’ Garth Greenwell, author of Small Rain
‘At once an unflinchingly beautiful novel about queer desire, summer days, and casual sex, that is also an elegy to friendship, grief, and lovers lost … The Living Realm belongs in the firmament of great gay fiction’ Douglas Stuart, author of John of John
‘In prose that is lucent and porous, The Living Realm moves through memory, desire, grief and ghosts. It is a beautiful novel’ Seán Hewitt, author of Open Heaven
‘ Strange, sexy and sad, The Living Realm goes to wild places while still feeling incredibly human’ Josh Silver, author of Fruit Fly
‘A glimpse of the sublime – full of love and wonder, this book transforms farewell into summer without end’ Jeremy Atherton Lin, author of Deep House
‘A ghost story, a meditation on ageing and the passage of time, a celebration of queer Berlin – Jordan Tannahill captures so much in a slim, hypnotic novel’ Tash Aw, author of The South
‘A mesmerising, feverish, aching gasp of a novel … I couldn’t put it down’ William Rayfet Hunter, author of Sunstruck
‘I completely inhaled and adored this … An expertly crafted ghost story overflowing with life’ Samantha Josephs, author of Carrying
‘Haunting, sexy and life affirming … a shimmering dream of a novel that feels destined to become a classic of queer literature. Jordan Tannahill is truly one of our greats’ Tobi Coventry, author of He’s the Devil
‘Jordan Tannahill achieves something remarkable in these pages … I finished in floods of cleansing tears. An extraordinary novel’ Jack Parlett, author of Flamboyance
‘Audacious and rutting and true and wild. It has haunted me since I read it’ Ben Miller, co-author of Bad Gays: A Homosexual History
‘A deeply tender and mystical meditation on desire and aging … left me breathless’ Huw Lemmey, co-author of Bad Gays: A Homosexual History
No reviews yet