Seven Sweet Things

Shaun Levin's first novella is an unforgettable portrayal of a relationship between two men, and of a desire for integrity that slowly tears them apart. "Seven Sweet Things" is a reminder that each time we fall in love we re-invent our codes, our values, and our sources of inspiration.

Last night, when my love went back to his girlfriend and I forgot how much he loves me and that I still love him, I comforted myself with the making of a rum-glazed chocolate and coconut cake. So begins Seven Sweet Things, Shaun Levin's brief, sumptuous, and deeply personal tale of love and appetite. The narrator and his lover, Martin, are two South Africans in London. An affair that begins in an internet chatroom takes them further into love than either imagined. Disturbingly honest and intensely erotic, Seven Sweet Things is as much an exploration of love as it is the lovers' exploration of the city. Eking out a living by selling cakes and desserts, the narrator loves reading Plato, sitting on park benches, and feeding his beloved. Each meeting between them is framed by the making, or the promise of a sweet thing. The landscape shifts from hidden archaeological mysteries in London to a fantastical stay in an old house in Yorkshire, and from Clissold Park in North London to Roslyn Glen in Scotland, where the narrator gets invited to prepare extravagant desserts for an aristocratic family. Shaun Levin's first novella is an unforgettable portrayal of a relationship between two men, and of a desire for integrity that slowly tears them apart. Seven Sweet Things is a reminder that each time we fall in love we re-invent our codes, our values, and our sources of inspiration.