A campus novel told from the perspective of a Black student, Taylor’s powerful tale embraces themes of grief, desire and alienation in rich, eloquent prose.
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2020
Wallace has spent his summer in the lab breeding a strain of microscopic worms. He is four years into a biochemistry degree at a lakeside Midwestern university, a life that’s a world away from his childhood in Alabama. His father died a few weeks ago, but Wallace didn’t go back for the funeral, and he hasn’t told his friends – Miller, Yngve, Cole and Emma. For reasons of self-preservation, he has become used to keeping a wary distance even from those closest to him.
But, over the course of one blustery end-of-summer weekend, the destruction of his work and a series of intense confrontations force Wallace to grapple with both the trauma of the past, and the question of the future.
Deftly zooming in and out of focus, Real Life is a deeply affecting story about the emotional cost of reckoning with desire, and overcoming pain.
Publisher: Daunt Books
ISBN: 9781911547747
Number of pages: 336
Dimensions: 198 x 129 mm
Real Life takes place over a single weekend, not long after the main character's father has died. Over the course of those few days, Wallace will reconsider his position as a graduate student at a Midwestern... More
Wow, what a debut! Taylor has created an incredibly sensitive, perceptive campus novel, and slice of life story, which packs so much into the short space of a weekend. This novel took me through so many emotions, but... More
I just absolutely loved Real Life by Brandon Taylor. The prose is just gorgeous and I couldn't bare to put it down and after I finished, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I loved the characters, the... More
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