a finalist for the 2020 booker prizea new york times editors choicea blistering coming of age story o the oprah magazinea novel of startling intimacy violence and mercy among friends in a midwestern university town from an electric new voice almost everything about wallace is at odds with the midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree an introverted young man from alabama black and queer he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood for reasons of selfpreservation wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friendssome dating each other some dating women some feigning straightness but over the course of a latesummer weekend a series of confrontations with colleagues and an unexpected encounter with an ostensibly straight white classmate conspire to fracture his defenses while exposing longhidden currents of hostility and desire within their community real life is a novel of profound and lacerating power a story that asks if its ever really possible to overcome our private wounds and at what cost