The Lost Language of Cranes

From the acclaimed author of Bright Monday, a story of a gay man’s coming out that “catches beautifully the terror and passion of new love” (The Village Voice).

Set in the 1980s against the backdrop of a swiftly gentrifying Manhattan, The Lost Language of Cranes tells the story of twenty-five-year-old Philip Benjamin, who realizes he must come out to his parents after falling in love for the first time with a man. Philip’s parents are facing their own problems: pressure from developers and the loss of their longtime home. But the real threat to the family is Philip’s father’s own struggle with his suppressed homosexuality, realized only in Sunday afternoon visits to gay porn theaters. Philip’s revelation to his parents leads his father to a point of crisis and provokes changes that forever alter the landscape of the family’s lives.

“Brilliant, wise . . . It would be hard to overpraise this book; it represents the most assured debut of a novelist in a long time.” —Vogue

“A multilayered work of sensibility, delicate on the surface, yet packing [a] punch . . . [a] revelation.” —The New York Times