Giovanni's Room

Local Description

Top 3 pick from Phum
"David, a young American in 1950s Paris, is waiting for his fiancée to return from vacation. But when he meets Giovanni, the two are drawn into an intense affair filled with passion, regret and longing. One of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read. This was such a poignant and immersive read, I felt like I was walking the streets of Paris with the young and bright eyed Giovanni and David. The way Baldwin injects such emotion and pain into less than 200 pages was so heartbreaking that I read it in small doses so as not to cry on the tram home."

Description

When David meets the sensual Giovanni in a bohemian bar, he is swept into a passionate love affair. But his girlfriend's return to Paris destroys everything. Unable to admit to the truth, David pretends the liaison never happened - while Giovanni's life descends into tragedy. United by the theme of love, the writings in the Great Loves series span over two thousand years and vastly different worlds. Readers will be introduced to love's endlessly fascinating possibilities and extremities: romantic love, platonic love, erotic love, gay love, virginal love, adulterous love, parental love, filial love, nostalgic love, unrequited love, illicit love, not to mention lost love, twisted and obsessional love...

Author description

James Baldwin (1924-1987) was born and educated in New York. Go Tell It on the Mountain, his first novel, was published in 1953. Evoking brilliantly his experiences as a boy preacher in Harlem, it was an immediate success and was followed by Giovanni's Room, which explores the theme of gay love. His novels are notable for the personal way in which they explore questions of sexual and racial identity.