FT readers’ best 2021 summer books – Financial Times

An absorbing read charting the history of the gay bar as a cultural artefact, alongside a sensitive exploration of British and American societies as experienced by a gay man, from the 1990s to the present day. Atherton Lin takes us on a journey threaded by his own heady experiences, reflecting with unbridled sexual honesty on the role various gay bars played. Always unvarnished — appropriately salacious — the gay ‘scenes’ of Los Angeles, San Francisco and London come to life, rich with smell, taste, tribalism and always a frisson of sexual tension. Serious moments and realities of gay life are woven into the storytelling, and compelling issues are rendered with a deft hand and light touch. This is exceptional writing.

–Matthew May (FT Books Cafe)