Showing titles in Coming of Age

Originally published in 1982 as the first of Edmund White's trilogy of autobiographical novels, A Boy's Own Story became an instant classic for its pioneering portrayal of homosexuality. The audiobook's unnamed narrator, growing up during the 1950s, is beset by aloof parents, a cruel sister, and relentless mocking from his peers, compelling him to seek out works of art and literature as solace-and to uncover new relationships in the struggle to embrace his own sexuality.

After inexperienced seventeen-year-old Isaac loses his virginity through a dating app—a disappointing yet addictive experience—he spends his final months before university escaping into a dizzying new world of casual sex with forgettable men. This all changes when he meets twenty-eight-year-old Harrison at a party. Isaac is immediately infatuated by the handsome, charismatic artist, but while they grow closer, his sense of self becomes increasingly hazy

'Call Me By Your Name meets Evelyn Waugh in a gorgeous novel about the generations-long aftershocks of a youthful tryst' — Esquire From the winner of the Man Booker Prize, a masterly novel that spans seven transformative decades as it plumbs the complex relationships of a remarkable family. In...

Brought to you by Penguin. From internationally bestselling author John Boyne, an inescapably gritty story about one young man whose direction in life takes a vastly different turn than what he expected. It’s the tabloid sensation of the year: two well-known footballers standing in the dock...

The heartbreaking story of the love of two women – Anne Lister, the real-life inspiration behind Gentleman Jack, and her first love, Eliza Raine – from the bestselling author of Room and The Wonder. 'A rich and spellbinding 19th-century story of forbidden love' – The Independent 'Donoghue...

A stylish, seductive new novel from Rebecca Sarah Ley, winner of a Betty Trask Prize and the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize 'A stylish and gripping take on the campus novel – witty, incredibly sharp, and compulsively readable' Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water Cure 'I loved it: a bleakly...

Yorkshire teacher Ellen Fenwick has never been abroad. But when her mother dies, this young woman finds herself taking a position as governess to an English girl in Florence in the summer of 1933. Little does Ellen realise how this girl, Juliet, and her family will claim her. For as the summer passes, Ellen falls so in love with Italy and her new home that she cannot bear to leave – even when her own hopes of love are cruelly thwarted.

Two bisexual exes, one unforgettably hot summer . . . In #1 New York Times-bestselling author Casey McQuiston's latest romantic comedy, two bisexual exes accidentally book the same European food and wine tour and challenge each other to a hookup competition to prove they're over each other -...

Marguerite Demers is 24 when she leaves Paris for the sleepy southern village of Saint-Sulpice, to take up a job as a live-in nurse. Her charge is Jerome Lanvier, once one of the most powerful men in the village, and now dying alone in his large and secluded house, surrounded by rambling gardens. Manipulative and tyrannical, Jerome has scared away all his previous nurses. 

For as long as Lucy can remember, she's been caught between loyalty to her rootless, idealistic mother and devotion to her fierce and exacting sister, Bea. From her unsettled childhood to her turbulent teenage years, she's been forced to make a choice. But as the sisters come of age and embark on their own experiments – in love, drugs, work, motherhood – they find their lives, and their relationships, increasingly in turmoil. Can the love they have for each other transcend the damage of the past? Or is the past too dangerous to examine?

As an empire burns, he will rise from the ashes. Sparrow, the Sunday Times bestselling historical epic by James Hynes, is the incredibly moving story of one boy’s journey to freedom in the harsh world of the Roman Empire. Raised in a brothel at the edge of a dying empire, a boy of no known...

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025 'Spellbinding' THE TIMES 'An exquisite, languorous novel' OBSERVER 'Heartstoppingly vivid' OISÍN MCKENNA A radiant novel of the longing that blooms between two boys over the course of one summer – about family, desire, and what we inherit – from...

Brought up in a devout household in Ireland, Jay is now living in London with her girlfriend, determined to live day to day and not think too much about either the future or the past. But when she learns that her beloved older brother, who died in a terrible accident, may be made into a Catholic saint, she realises she must at last confront her family, her childhood and herself . . .

FINALIST FOR THE LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FOR GAY FICTION "That rarest phenomenon: a war novel that feels at once timeless and precisely of the moment…" —Washington Post A poignant coming-of-age story with the sensitivity and haunting power of What Belongs to You and Swimming in the Dark, about...

Truly compelling and rich with emotional insight , Patrick Gale's Cornish novel, ROUGH MUSIC is a beautiful story of a marriage and the secrets a family holds. 'Sparkling with emotional intelligence. A gripping portrait of a marriage and the quiet, devastating fall-out of family life'...

A young royal from the far north, is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully. Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for.

Quirky, charming and suffused with the footloose spirit of the sixties, this is the irresistible story of an English woman who decides on a whim to move herself and her two young daughters to Morocco. The ensuing adventure takes them through richly perfumed markets, dilapidated hotels and mystical Sufi retreats, via friendships and feuds, romances with nomadic street performers, hitchhiking, and nights camping by the coast—all seen through the eyes of a precocious five-year-old girl.

In Boyfriend Material, Luc and Oliver met, pretended to fall in love, fell in love for real, dealt with heartbreak and disappointment and family and friends...and somehow figured out a way to make it work. Now it seems like everyone around them is getting married, and Luc's feeling the social pressure to propose. But it'll take more than four weddings, a funeral, and a bowl full of special curry to get these two from "I don't know what I'm doing" to "I do". Good thing Oliver is such perfect Husband Material.

Mei loses her Japanese mother at age six. Growing up in suburban Surrey, she yearns to fit in, suppressing both her heritage and her growing love for her best friend Fran. Yuki leaves the Japanese countryside to pursue her dream of becoming a concert violinist in London. Lonely and far from home, she finds herself caught up in the charms of her older teacher. Haruka attempts to navigate Tokyo's nightlife and all of its many vices, working as a hostess in seedy bars. She grieves a mother who hid so many secrets from her, until finally one of those secrets comes to light.

One of Them’s 10 Most Anticipated Books of 2025 One of Book Riot’s and The Mary Sue’s 15 Most Anticipated Queer Books of 2025 One of The Millions’, Kirkus’s, and The AV Club's Most Anticipated Books of 2025 An unforgettable and heartwarming book-club debut following a trans...