When Artie Avilis joins a KGB-led tour to the land of his family's heritage, he expects answers about where he comes from. What he finds instead will cost him everything he thought he could keep hidden.
Behind the Iron Curtain, identity is policed, desire is dangerous, and even private truths carry consequences. As Cold War tensions mount, Artie is pulled into a web of political and personal intrigue that forces him to confront what he believes, what he wants, and what he is willing to risk to live honestly in a world that demands silence.
Woven through with Lithuanian folk tales and fragments of found haiku, The Boy Who Loved Trees is a lyrical debut of longing, secrecy, and the quiet defiance of becoming oneself.
Winner, Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation Grant for Gay-Positive Historical Fiction Honorable Mention, Bellwether Prize Dana Awards Finalist
For readers of Alan Hollinghurst, Colm Tóibín, and Anthony Doerr.
Language
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
ISBN-13
978-1-7340973-3-7 (9781734097337)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
M. M. De Voe is a prize-winning author whose short fiction has been widely published in multiple genres. Anthologized alongside Joyce Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood; nominated for three Pushcart Prizes; loves Scrabble, puzzles, and juggling. Her novel manuscript was a finalist for the Bellwether Prize and won a grant from the Arch & Bruce Brown Foundation for Gay-Positive Historical Fiction. MFA in Creative Writing: Fiction from Columbia University where she was a Writing Fellow. Founder and Executive Director of Pen Parentis; for her individual work with this literary nonprofit, she won four consecutive Manhattan Community Arts Funds Grants. One husband, two kids, some fish and an urban rabbit; all living in lower Manhattan.