A new edition of a lost classic of twentieth-century Italian literature: Tondelli's last book is a powerful novel about the strength of love and the trauma of death.
WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY ANDRE ACIMAN, AUTHOR OF CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
'A classic of Italian gay fiction . . . the whole thing is bathed in elegiac pathos'THE SUNDAY TIMES'An Italian novel of imperfect love and urgent grief'NEW YORK TIMES'Beautiful and poignant'THE TIMES'A stunning novel . . . prepare to be deeply moved'JACK PARLETT, author of Fire IslandThomas, a young German musician, is dying. His older boyfriend, a renowned Italian writer named Leo, finds it impossible to watch the slow and inevitable demise of his lover; he condemns himself to moving cities every few weeks instead, in the hope of finding a semblance of peace.He travels through Europe where past and present overlap, years merge and faces emerge - and where reminders of the life he and Thomas shared are on every corner. Leo's memories become clearer with every road he takes, much as he wishes he could simply forget. Wanting to preserve the passion of their relationship, Leo had forced Thomas to live separately: in separate rooms, separate towns, with separate lives. But now, face to face with true solitude, Leo must finally reckon with the impossible striving of memory to recreate life and, ultimately, cross an ocean to find the strength to go on.A classic of Italian gay fiction . . . the whole thing is bathed in elegiac pathos . . . beautiful and poignant -- Bartolomeo Sala The Times
Read the classic novel of love and memory . . . before it becomes a Luca Guadagnino film -- Most anticipated books of 2025 Literary Hub
Separate Rooms is a classic in Italy: a story of love and youth and pain that will have you clutching at your heart. I want everyone to read it; I want to press it into people's hands. Surely one of the best novels I've ever read -- Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of LESS
Separate Rooms is a stunning novel. Pier Vittorio Tondelli paints a picture of queer love at once woozy, intimate and frayed at the edges by grief and history. He poses essential questions about what it means to build a life, and what the act of writing demands of us. If you ever need reminding why we run towards connection, even in the face of risk and loss, read this book, and prepare to be deeply moved -- Jack Parlett, author of FIRE ISLAND
A major work of queer literature. Don't be deceived by the title. Separate Rooms is uncompromisingly about loss: the loss of self that a gay man, brought up to a solitary sense of identity by a world that doesn't recognise queer love, feels on falling in love; and then, shatteringly, the deranging effects of bereavement. Miraculously it does end with a note of hope, but Tondelli (who was himself to die of an AIDS-related illness in 1991) is not afraid to show the absurdity of grief: "The fact is, Leo, he's dead. And you're not. That's why he's not the right man for you." Bleak and harrowingly funny and eventually gloriously redemptive -- Will Tosh, author of STRAIGHT ACTING
An Italian novel of imperfect love and urgent grief New York Times
A novel of dignified beauty Observer
A masterly piece of writing, rich with insight and detail, and a curiously moving optimism Gay Times
Tondelli's was a meticulous talent, precise and particular, his writing full of nicely observed detail and an almost microscopic view of everyday things and feelings Financial Times
A discreet, lyrical meditation on the nature of male love -- Edmund White
Pier Vittorio Tondelli was born in Correggio in 1955 and died in 1991. He made his debut in 1980 with Altri libertini, which was followed in 1982 by Pao Pao. In 1985 he published the novel Rimini, followed by Biglietti agli amici in 1986 and Separate Rooms in 1989.
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