The Spring before Obergefell: A Novel (The James Alan McPherson Prize for the Novel)
LGBTQ+ fiction, Serious and literary fiction
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
Summary
The James Alan McPherson Prize for the Novel, AWP Award Series Winner It&’s not easy for anyone to find love, let alone a middle-aged gay man in small-town America. Mike Breck works multiple part-time jobs and bickers constantly with his… father, an angry conservative who moved in after Mike&’s mother died. When he&’s not working or avoiding his father, Mike burns time on hookup apps, not looking for anything more. Then he meets a local guy, Dave, just as lonely as he is, and starts to think that maybe he doesn&’t have to be alone. Mike falls hard, and in a moment of intimacy, his pent-up hopes for a relationship rush out, leading him to look more honestly at himself and his future. Winner of the James Alan McPherson Prize for the Novel, Ben Grossberg&’s The Spring before Obergefell is about real guys who have real problems, yet still manage to find connection. Funny, serious, meditative, and hopeful, The Spring before Obergefell is a romance—but not a fairytale.