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Waiting on a Friend
Natalie Adler
Formats & Editions
'A joy to read' Sophie Ward
'Funny, sexy, heartbreaking' Ann Napolitano
'Wildly inventive and moving' Patrick Ryan
East Village, summer of 1984. Renata is a young dyke-about-town who has the ability to see ghosts, which has been happening more and more frequently as her friends have started dying of what has recently been named AIDS.
So, when her best friend Mark dies, she assumes she'll see him again. There's no way Mark wouldn't give her a chance to say goodbye, would he? But to her disappointment - and increasingly, her concern - Mark doesn't appear.
Renata has other problems, too. A mysterious, police-like force has begun ridding their East Village neighbourhood of anything abnormal or inexplicable. At first, she's sure they're scam artists, but it becomes clear they're actually trapping ghosts. With her band of lovably eccentric pals and lovers, Renata is determined to fight back against the erasure of her friends' memories and the sanitizing of her beloved New York.
Both heartbreaking and healing, tragic and triumphant, Waiting on a Friend is a magical retelling of queer history and a celebration of youth and camaraderie. With pathos and humour, empathy and an edge, Natalie Adler freshly reimagines the past for a new generation, reclaiming the spirit of resistance and determination that would become one of the era's defining legacies.
Read MorePraise for Waiting on a Friend
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Waiting on a Friend is a fun, sexy, heartbreaking, inventive whirl of a novel. Renata has always seen ghosts, and when her best friend Mark dies, she wants nothing more than to see him again. This story is a beautiful study of friendship, of how loss unmoors us, and how if we keep turning towards love, anything is possible.A charming and innovative debut, Waiting on a Friend is fresh and refreshing, both heartbreaking and uplifting. Such a pleasure to read. Natalie Adler has given us a gem - Rabih Alameddine, National Book Award finalistA ghost story, a mystery, an ode to the New York City of the 1980s, a requiem for the early victims of AIDS, a celebration of queer friendship . . . This book pulses with life and exuberance amid death and loss. A riveting debut by a writer of tremendous compassion and insight - Helen Phillips, author of The Need, longlisted for the National Book AwardWaiting on a Friend is a breathtaking novel: candid, wickedly funny, deeply generous, and kind. Above all else it is a kind book. The plotting is intricate. The characters, moving and well-drawn. I absolutely loved it and could not stop reading - Jiaming Tang, author of Cinema Love, winner of the Lambda Literary AwardI've read this gorgeous and heartbreaking novel a few times now (not to brag) and each time I'm completely sucked in and devastated and awash in a feeling of somebody gets it! about the moment of queer life in NYC that was ending right as I showed up in the late '80s. . . . Adler gets the feeling of the time more right than almost any historical fiction I've read about the early-middle height of AIDS in NYC - Andrea Lawlor, author of Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal GirlWaiting on a Friend sets a personal story of loss within the backdrop of a city still grieving those lost to AIDS. The effect is a powerful, moving story that speaks to the themes of friendship, found families, and acceptance. With resonant character work and hauntingly beautiful care for those remaining and gone, this book will linger long after the last page - Gerrard Conley, author of Boy ErasedBy turns biting and generous, funny and devastating, Waiting on a Friend evokes friendship in all its complexity-its resentments, tender obsessions, marvelous intimacies, and supernatural power - Beth Morgan, author of A Touch of JenNatalie Adler is bringing one incarnation of the AIDS experience into the present where it all belongs. Someone is listening - Sarah Schulman, author of Rat Bohemia and Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP
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