Showing titles in Coming of Age

On the Sunday of his 18th birthday, in 1975, Colin takes a walk on Box Hill, a biker hang-out. There he accidentally trips over Ray, a biker napping under a tree - and that’s where it all starts. This transgressive, darkly affecting love story between men, winner of the 2019 Fitzcarraldo Editions Novel Prize, is a stunning novel of desire and domination by one of Britain’s most accomplished writers.

Jim, a handsome, all-American athlete, has always been shy around girls. But when he and his best friend, Bob, partake in “awful kid stuff,” the experience forms Jim’s ideal of spiritual completion. Defying his parents’ expectations, Jim strikes out on his own, hoping to find Bob and rekindle their amorous friendship.

Mei loses her Japanese mother at age six. Growing up in suburban Surrey, she yearns to fit in, suppressing both her heritage and her growing love for her best friend Fran. Yuki leaves the Japanese countryside to pursue her dream of becoming a concert violinist in London. Lonely and far from home, she finds herself caught up in the charms of her older teacher. Haruka attempts to navigate Tokyo's nightlife and all of its many vices, working as a hostess in seedy bars. She grieves a mother who hid so many secrets from her, until finally one of those secrets comes to light.

An addictively gripping queer coming-of-age story about an all-consuming, insidious love affair between a college freshman and a mysterious older woman, from an unforgettable new voice in fiction. Eighteen-year-old Natalie has just arrived at her first year of university in Toronto, leaving her...

Brookhants School for Girls: infamous site of a series of tragic deaths more than a hundred years ago. Soon to be the subject of a controversial horror movie about the rumoured ‘Brookhants curse’: in the early 1900s, Brookhants students Flo and Clara fell madly in love, brought together by their obsession for a scandalous memoir. A few months later they were found dead in the woods, after a horrific wasp attack, the book lying next to their intertwined bodies. Three more grisly deaths followed before the school was forced to close. 

A tender coming-of-age novel about a young woman haunted by her sister’s death, who starts to believe that her beloved sibling has returned to her—in the form of a ghost fish. Perfect for fans of Sweetbitter and Our Wives Under the Sea. Alison is mired in loneliness and grief. Freshly...

“What would you tell your teen self if you could go back in time? Underhill’s tender, innovative debut is the smartest take on this trope I’ve ever read. . . and for the record, I read it in a single sitting. A beautiful, thoughtful study of how we find our truest selves, and whom we...

‘I urge you to read Bad Habit' PEDRO ALMODÓVAR 'Had me hooked from the first page … Savour every word' DUA LIPA ‘The book that everyone is reading’ NEW YORK TIMES 'Sublime' ÉDOUARD LOUIS A SERVICE95 BOOK CLUB PICK Beautifully written and told in an irresistible voice, Bad Habit is a...

Acclaimed author Jade Song (Chlorine) returns with her latest literary exploration: a lyrical, poignant, and heartfelt novel about the meaning of love, friendship, debt, depression, and death in New York City—a coming-of-age for a new generation, in the vein of Sally Rooney and Ottessa...

Cowritten by a Ukrainian–Russian duo, Pioneer Summer reached such heights of popularity that Putin stepped in to ban it. Now this swoony romance will transport American listeners to another place and time and introduce them to one of the most memorable relationships of their lives.

Brought to you by Penguin. ***Shortlisted for The Goldsmiths Prize 2025*** Ask anyone non-Northern, they’ll only know Donny as punch line of a joke or place they changed trains once ont way to London. But Doncaster’s also the home of Rach, Shaz and Kel, bezzies since childhood and Donny...

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.

George de Clare thought moving to Manhattan would be an escape. Instead, it's become another performance. Between failed relationships, awkward hookups, and the exhausting work of being "too British" for Americans and "not queer enough" for anyone, George is unravelling. A disastrous trip to Los Angeles with his boyfriend Charlie ends with George fleeing back to New York—alone, broke, and wondering if his queerness is a burden he'll carry forever.

Vicky has been obsessed with death for as long as she can remember. From living above a Chinatown funeral parlour to working at a celebrity start-up for bespoke urns, she has surrounded herself with it - right down to the collection of zhizha paper creations meant to be burned for the dead, that fill her apartment. Yet, though living in Manhattan and working her dream job is all she ever wanted, she still struggles to form genuine connections and find meaning in her life outside of her best (and only) friend, Jen.

Nobody at the corporate offices of Athletius Japan knows much about the massage therapist, Jackson, but rumors abound. He used to work as a model. He likes to party. He's mixed race—half-Japanese, half-somewhere-in-Africa-n. He might be gay. Fueling the gossip is the sudden appearance of a violent pornographic video featuring a man who looks a lot like Jackson. When Jackson serendipitously meets three other queer mixed-race guys, he learns he's not the only one being targeted. Together they concoct a plan...

A ‘Book of the Year’ for The Guardian, The Observer, The Times, Daily Express, The Spectator, The Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman and the I 'I must confess my devotion immediately: I read every word this man writes. I wait for every new novel and the wait has been worth it...

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.

Eighteen-year-old Aine Kamara has been anticipating a reunion with her older sister, Mbabazi, for months. But when Mbabazi shows up with an unexpected guest, Aine must confront an old fear: her beloved sister is gay in a country with tight anti-homosexuality laws. Over a weekend at Aine's all girls' boarding school, sisterly bonds strengthen, and a new friendship emerges between Aine and her sister's partner, Achen. Later, a sudden death in the family brings Achen to Mbabazi's and Aine's village, resulting in tensions that put Mrs. Kamara's Christian beliefs to the test.

Set in the post-martial-law era of late-1980s Taipei, Notes of a Crocodile is a coming-of-age story of queer misfits discovering love, friendship, and artistic affinity while hardly studying at Taiwan's most prestigious university. Told through the eyes of an anonymous lesbian narrator nicknamed Lazi, this cult classic is a postmodern pastiche of diaries, vignettes, mash notes, aphorisms, exegesis, and satire by an incisive prose stylist and major countercultural figure.

Meet Orlando: a young nobleman in Elizabethan England, poet, lover, adventurer—and, after a transformational sleep, a woman. Spanning over 300 years of British history, Orlando bends the rules of time, gender, and narrative as its protagonist navigates shifting societies, identities, and expectations, all while seeking something elusive: the truth of the self. Playful, profound, and radically ahead of its time, Virginia Woolf's groundbreaking novel is part love letter, part satire, and part meditation on the fluid nature of existence.