At Certain Points We Touch

AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVEL OF THE YEAR * AN ESQUIRE BEST BOOK OF 2022 * A STYLIST BOOK YOU CAN'T MISS IN 2022

"SEARING"-Harper's Bazaar
"SMART, SPARKLING, TWISTED" -Attitude
"SCREAMINGLY FUNNY, SCANDALOUSLY HOT, OPULENT, DEEP" -Jeremy Atherton Lin, author of Gay Bar

From an electrifying new voice, a "stone-cold masterpiece" (Olivia Laing) of queer friendship, first love, and unbridled youth.

It's four in the morning, and our narrator is walking home from the club when they realize the date is February 29th-the birthday of the man who was something like their first love. Piecing together art, letters, and memory, they set about trying to write the story of a doomed affair that first sparked and burned a decade ago.

Ten years earlier, our young narrator and a boy named Thomas James fall into bed with one another over the summer of their graduation. Their ensuing affair, with its violent, animal intensity and its intoxicating and toxic power plays initiates a dance of repulsion and attraction that will cross years, span continents, drag in countless victims-and culminate in terrible betrayal.

At Certain Points We Touch is a story of first love and last rites, conjured against a vivid backdrop of London, San Francisco, and New York-a riotous, razor-sharp coming-of-age story that marks the arrival of an extraordinary new talent.

About the author

Lauren John Joseph

Summary

SELECTED FOR STYLIST'S FICTION YOU CAN'T MISS IN 2022 - 'AN ESSENTIAL READ'

NAMED AS A BOOK OF 2022 BY ESQUIRE, STYLIST, SHEERLUXE AND FOYLES

'A stone-cold masterpiece by a shocking new talent' OLIVIA LAING

'Pure delight ... A queer romance novel like no other' TATLER

It's four in the morning, and our narrator is walking home from the club when they realise that it's February 29th - the birthday of the man who was something like their first love. Piecing together art, letters and memory, they set about trying to write the story of a doomed affair that first sparked and burned a decade ago.

Ten years earlier, and our young narrator and a boy named Thomas James fall into bed with one another over the summer of their graduation. Their ensuing affair, with its violent, animal intensity and its intoxicating and toxic power play will initiate a dance of repulsion and attraction that will cross years, span continents, drag in countless victims - and culminate in terrible betrayal.

At Certain Points We Touch is a story of first love and last rites, conjured against a vivid backdrop of London, San Francisco and New York - a riotous, razor-sharp coming-of-age story that marks the arrival of an extraordinary new talent.

'Lauren John Joseph writes with such wit, glamour, and style! I haven't read a book that so powerfully evokes what it's like to be a wild young artist among other wild young artists since the Bright Young Things' TORREY PETERS, author of Detransition, Baby

'Screamingly funny, scandalously hot, opulent, deep - a devastating torch song of obsession and excess' JEREMY ATHERTON LIN, author of Gay Bar

'Lauren's debut novel is so exciting. The writing is so fresh, funny and gripping - and carries the trademark wit that I have always loved from Lauren' TRAVIS ALABANZA

'The struggle to find ones place in the world as an artist and lover, creating self and culture as you go along - At Certain Points We Touch captures this fleeting, dazzling moment with glamour and heart' MICHELLE TEA

Foreword

A sweeping and shattering portrait of youth, friendship and first love, by an electrifying new voice

Additional text

Elegant, sharp, and hysterical, At Certain Points We Touch asks us how do we grieve a lover who may not have been a good person. Lauren John Joseph's writing will pull you in like an alluring perfume, only to seize your heart and tear it to pieces in this spectacular début!

Product details

• Authors: Lauren John Joseph
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.03.2022
• EAN: 9781526631305
• ISBN: 978-1-5266-3130-5
• No. of pages: 384
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; FICTION / Romance / LGBT / Transgender, FICTION / LGBT / Transgender, Of specific Gay interest