Hide

An ALA Stonewall Honor book, Hide is a “graceful” novel of a gay couple's hidden life together in post-WWII America (New York Times Book Review).

Wendell and Frank meet at the end of World War II, when Frank returns home to their North Carolina town. Soon he’s loitering around Wendell’s taxidermy shop, and the two come to understand their connection as love—a love that, in this time and place, can hold real danger. Cutting nearly all ties with the rest of the world, they make a home for themselves on the outskirts of town, a string of beloved dogs for company. Wendell cooks, Frank cares for the yard, and together they enjoy the vicarious drama of courtroom TV.

But when Wendell finds Frank lying outside among their tomatoes at the age of eighty-three, he feels a new threat to their careful self-reliance. As Frank’s physical strength and his memory deteriorate, the two of them must fully confront the sacrifices they’ve made for each other—and the impending loss of the life they’ve built.

Raw, gently funny, and gorgeously rendered, Hide is a love story of rare power.

“Something like a small miracle: a bittersweet portrait of love in the shadows.” —Booklist, starred review

“Tender, restrained. . . . This is a great love story.” — Edmund White, author of Our Young Man

“Full of joy and tenderness and awe . . . Griffin's lush prose lends an aura of a dream.” —The Rumpus

“Extraordinary. . . . [A] beautifully down-to-earth love letter.” —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“A masterful novel. Every page aches with life.” —Gail Godwin, author of Flora