A beautiful new Clothbound edition of Baldwin's ground-breaking novel, which established him as one of the great American writers of his time

'Audacious... remarkable... elegant and courageous' Caryl Phillips

'Exquisite, a feat of fire-breathing, imaginative daring' Guardian

David, a young American in 1950s Paris, is waiting for his fiancee to return from vacation in Spain. But when he meets Giovanni, a handsome Italian barman, the two men are drawn into an intense affair. After three months David's fiancee returns and, denying his sexuality, he rejects Giovanni for a 'safe' future as a married man - a decision that will bring tragedy, longing and regret.

'Gorgeous, fearless, tempered by dark knowledge and pain ... the greatest American prose stylist of his generation' Colm Toibin

'A layered exploration of queer desire ... It is electric' Hilton Als

About the Author

James Baldwin was born in 1924 in New York. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), which evokes his experiences as a boy preacher in Harlem, was an immediate success. Baldwin's second novel, Giovanni's Room (1956) has become a landmark of gay literature and Another Country (1962) caused a literary sensation. His searing essay collections Notes of a Native Son (1955) and Nobody Knows My Name (1961) contain many of the works that made him an influential figure in the Civil Rights Movement. Baldwin published several other collections of non-fiction, including The Fire Next Time (1963) and No Name in the Street (1972). His short stories are collected in Going to Meet the Man (1965). His later works include the novels Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone (1968), If Beale Street Could Talk (1974) and Just Above My Head (1979).

James Baldwin won a number of literary fellowships: a Eugene F. Saxon Memorial Trust Award, a Rosenwald Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Partisan Review Fellowship and a Ford Foundation grant. He was made a Commander of the Legion of Honour in 1986. He died in 1987 in France

Reviews
Extraordinarily exact and complex emotional intimacy . . . At the core of the novel lies Baldwin's recognition that with a denial of suffering and pain as a means of happiness, there can be no feeling, understanding, or real connection in life * Guardian *
Today, when a great many arguments and complaints from the queer quarters of the political sphere have to do with what has been done to queerness by the patriarchy and by whiteness, Baldwin asks, in Giovanni's Room, what love looks like, ultimately, when we leave all those bags at the door - and if we can. Do we know how to live in a purely queer world not defined by resistance or self-hatred?' -- Hilton Als * New York Times Style Magazine *
The whole novel is a kind of anatomy of shame, of its roots and the myths that perpetuate it, of the damage it can do. -- Garth Greenwell * Guardian *
The simple story of love is filled with ambiguity, difficulty, and paradox -- Colm Toibin * The New Yorker *
It has a level of angst and heartbreak I am yet to find anywhere else -- Troye Sivan * Vogue *
A mesmerizing book -- Chris Abani * NPR *



Book Information
ISBN 9780241718599
Author James Baldwin
Format Hardback
Page Count 176
Imprint Penguin Classics
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 280g
Dimensions(mm) 205mm * 136mm * 17mm