'A novel of dignified beauty'
OBSERVER
'A masterly piece of writing, rich with insight and detail, and a curiously moving optimism'
GAY TIMES
'A discreet, lyrical meditation on the nature of male love'
EDMUND WHITE
Thomas, a young German musician, is dying. Leo, a renowned Italian writer and Thomas's boyfriend, finds it impossible to mourn his loss and condemns himself to wandering the Earth, in the hope of finding the dividing line between the living and the dead.
He travels through a Europe where past and present overlap, roads intersect, years merge and faces emerge - and tries in vain to bring into focus the blurred lines of their relationship. Believing he could protect himself, Leo had forced Thomas to live in a separate room, a separate city, a separate life. And now he will have to cross the ocean to find - after a descent into hell - the strength to live on.
Structured in three musical movements, Separate Rooms is a story of almost ideal homosexual love, cruelly broken by absence and separation.
WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY ANDRÉ 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 Island
Thomas, 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.
