Joyful, wild, gay stories from award winning Martin Goodman.

Meet his cast of characters:

New York designer Arnold, whose lovely life blossoms from age 7. We watch him grow famous then learn from the bumps of life.

A young priest who leaves uptight England to lose and find himself in Turkey.

Queenie, scarred from her time as a beautiful boy, meets young Tom, who loves the fact that she's a wreck.

A young Indian teacher meets an older London billionaire who's not yet out.

And the stunning finale is a gay version of Melville's classic Billy Budd, the tale of a beautiful doomed sailor.

"A ravishing collection, remarkably wide-ranging in subject, mood and tone, each story exquisitely crafted."
- Paul Russell, author of Immaculate Blue

About the Author
Martin Goodman has published thirteen books, both fiction and nonfiction. His debut novel On Bended Knees, just re-released, was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award, and his most recent one The Cellist of Dachau, takes music and the Holocaust as its themes. Nonfiction books, some award-winning, are about the sacred, fights to save the environment, and the history of medicine. Born in Leicester, he studied English at Leeds, took a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Lancaster, and is professor emeritus of creative writing at the University of Hull, and has broadcast widely as a BBC New Generation Thinker. He shares homes in Los Angeles, London and Lowestoft with his husband, the environmental lawyer, writer and Zen priest James Thornton. "Such narrow, narrow confines we live in. Every so often, one of us primates escapes these dimensions, as Martin Goodman did. All we can do is rattle the bars and look after him as he runs into the hills. We wait for his letters home." - The Los Angeles Times

Reviews

"A ravishing collection, remarkably wide-ranging in subject, mood and tone, each story exquisitely crafted. A complicated young man embarked on a romantic adventure and diving into deeper water than he can safely navigate. A clergyman shedding his faith as he retraces the footsteps of St. Paul. Several linked tales chronicling lovely Arnold's wondrous, ultimately bittersweet wet dream of a life. A boldly imagined "missing" scene from Melville's Billy Budd. These stories explore the cadences and crises of gay men's lives with fine, empathetic insight. Goodman's attention to detail often combines with verbal felicity to memorialize even the most ordinary moments. Powerful and affecting work."
- Paul Russell, author of Immaculate Blue

"Martin Goodman's wild, irreverent and fetching stories pulled me in. I was especially taken by his Melvillian outake on Billy Budd, the fine last story in this collection, which is moving and weirdly plausible."
- Jay Parini, author of The Passages of Herman Melville and Borges and Me

Book Information
ISBN 9780956336439
Author Martin Goodman
Format Paperback
Page Count 210
Imprint Barbican Press
Publisher Barbican Press