Staff Pick
Chee's first novel is back in print, and shouldn't be missed. I read it earlier this year, and wasn't prepared for its beauty and deft handling of difficult and complicated subjects. Recommended By Adam P., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Twelve-year-old Fee is a shy Korean American boy and a newly named section leader of the first sopranos in his local boys’ choir. But when Fee learns how the director treats his section leaders, he is so ashamed he says nothing of the abuse, not even when Peter, his best friend, is in line to be next. When the director is arrested, Fee tries to forgive himself for his silence. But when Peter takes his own life, Fee blames only himself. In the years that follow he slowly builds a new life, teaching near his hometown. There he meets a young student who is the picture of Peter and is forced to confront the past he believed was gone. Told with “the force of a dream and the heft of a life,” Edinburgh marks Chee “as a major talent whose career will bear watching” (Publishers Weekly).
Review
“Lyrical...arresting...compelling...Edinburgh is beautifully imagined and executed...Profound and poetic...Chee's is a voice worth listening to.” San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"Alexander Chee gets my vote for the best new novelist I've read in some time. Edinburgh is moody, dramatic — and pure.” Edmund White
Review
“Few coming-of-age novels truly stir one's emotions or lead readers to consider the trauma of their own lives. Edinburgh does both.” Newsday
Review
“Edinburgh has the force of a dream and the heft of a life. And Alexander Chee is a brilliant new writer.” Annie Dillard
Review
“A coming-of-age novel in the grand Romantic tradition, where passions run high, Cupid stalks Psyche, and love shares the dance floor with death...A lovely, nuanced, never predictable portrait of a creative soul in the throes of becoming.” Washington Post
Review
“Haunting...complex...sophisticated...[Chee] says volumes with just a few incendiary words.” New York Times
Synopsis
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
Winner of the James Michener/Copernicus Society Fellowship Prize
Lambda Literary Foundation Editor's Choice Award
" Chee] says volumes with just a few incendiary words." --New York Times
"Arresting . . . profound and poetic . . . Chee's voice is worth listening to." --San Francisco Chronicle
"Alexander Chee gets my vote for the best new novelist I've read in some time. Edinburgh is moody, dramatic--and pure." --Edmund White
Twelve-year-old Fee is a shy Korean American boy and a newly named section leader of the first sopranos in his local boys' choir. But when Fee learns how the director treats his section leaders, he is so ashamed he says nothing of the abuse, not even when Peter, his best friend, is in line to be next. When the director is arrested, Fee tries to forgive himself for his silence. But when Peter takes his own life, Fee blames only himself. In the years that follow he slowly builds a new life, teaching near his hometown. There he meets a young student who is the picture of Peter and is forced to confront the past he believed was gone. Told with "the force of a dream and the heft of a life,"* Edinburgh marked Chee "as a major talent whose career will bear watching" (Publishers Weekly).
"A coming-of-age tale in the grand Romantic tradition, where passions run high, Cupid stalks Psyche, and love shares the dance floor with death . . . A lovely, nuanced, never predictable portrait of a creative soul in the throes of becoming." --Washington Post
Synopsis
"One of the great queer novels, and great American novels, of our time. It's just so good." --Brandon Taylor, GQ A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year * Winner of the James Michener/Copernicus Society Fellowship Prize * Lambda Literary Foundation Editor's Choice Award
" Chee] says volumes with just a few incendiary words." --New York Times
"Arresting . . . profound and poetic . . . Chee's voice is worth listening to." --San Francisco Chronicle
"Alexander Chee gets my vote for the best new novelist I've read in some time. Edinburgh is moody, dramatic--and pure." --Edmund White
Twelve-year-old Fee is a shy Korean American boy and a newly named section leader of the first sopranos in his local boys' choir. But when Fee learns how the director treats his section leaders, he is so ashamed he says nothing of the abuse, not even when Peter, his best friend, is in line to be next. When the director is arrested, Fee tries to forgive himself for his silence. But when Peter takes his own life, Fee blames only himself. In the years that follow he slowly builds a new life, teaching near his hometown. There he meets a young student who is the picture of Peter and is forced to confront the past he believed was gone. Told with "the force of a dream and the heft of a life,"* Edinburgh marked Chee "as a major talent whose career will bear watching" (Publishers Weekly).
"A coming-of-age tale in the grand Romantic tradition, where passions run high, Cupid stalks Psyche, and love shares the dance floor with death . . . A lovely, nuanced, never predictable portrait of a creative soul in the throes of becoming." --Washington Post
Synopsis
From the best-selling author of How To Write an Autobiographical Novel, Alexander Chee's award-winning debut is One of the great queer novels . . . of our time. -- Brandon Taylor, GQ
Twelve-year-old Fee is a shy Korean-American boy growing up in Maine whose powerful soprano voice wins him a place as section leader of the first sopranos in his local boys choir. But when, on a retreat, Fee discovers how the director treats the boys he makes section leader, he is so ashamed, he says nothing of the abuse, not even when Peter, Fee's best friend, is in line to be next. The director is eventually arrested, and Fee tries to forgive himself for his silence. But when Peter takes his own life, Fee blames only himself.
Years later, after he has carefully pieced a new life together, Fee takes a job at a private school near his hometown. There he meets a young student, Arden, who, to his shock, is the picture of Peter -- and the son of his old choir director.
Told with "the force of a dream and the heft of a life" (Annie Dillard), this is a haunting, lyrically written debut novel that marked Chee "as a major talent whose career will bear watching" (Publisher's Weekly).
About the Author
Alexander Chee is the bestselling author of the novels The Queen of the Night and Edinburgh. He is a contributing editor at the New Republic, an editor-at-large at Virginia Quarterly Review, and a critic-at-large at the Los Angeles Times. His work has appeared in The Best American Essays 2016, the New York Times Magazine, Slate, Guernica, and Tin House, among others. He is an associate professor of English at Dartmouth College.