"An undiscovered LGBTQ classic" - Matt Donnelly, Variety
"A remarkable novel... almost as if two of those idealized youths in Plato's 'Symposium' had for one brilliant moment come alive again in a sunlit beach near the land's end of Europe" - Gore Vidal, author of The City and the Pillar
The 1920s. When wealthy American adolescent Matthew Cameron moves to France following his parents' divorce, he struggles to assimilate to his new surroundings. But when a new tennis instructor - Michel Garnier - arrives at Matthew's boarding school, a forbidden relationship develops that will have unforeseen consequences.
Originally published in 1951, Finistère is a trailblazing LGBTQ+ novel. It locates tragedy not in the same-sex nature of the relationship between Matthew and Michel, but rather in the failure of their family, and wider society, to accept their relationship. Having sold over 350,000 copies, Fritz Peters' most successful novel kicked off the explosion of unapologetically gay literature in the United States and Britain. Through its sensitively rendered characters, Peters illuminates culture clash, class conflict, divorce, child-rearing, and the gaps in empathy that provoke life's greatest pains.
Includes an introduction by Christopher Adams and Jack Parlett. Adams is an accomplished playwright and screenwriter for the film adaptation of Finistère. He holds a PhD in mid-twentieth century queer publishing history from the University of London and is a U.S. Fulbright Scholar. Jack Parlett is a writer, poet, and literary scholar specializing in queer studies and American literature with a PhD from Cambridge University. He is the author of Fire Island: Love, Loss and Liberation in an American Paradise.
