AfterElton’s 50 Best Gay Books!

2. Maurice by E. M. Forster

Homosexuality was illegal in Britain in 1913, but E. M. Forster was determined to give his novel about gay life in that era a happy ending anyway. Still, he didn’t dare publish it, instead showing it only to a few close friends. The novel, by the author of such acclaimed works as A Passage to India and Howards End, was finally published posthumously in 1971 — and was controversial even then. But gay readers saw this extraordinary novel for what it is, and the 1987 movie (made by the gay filmmaking duo of Merchant/Ivory) propelled this revolutionary novel into the ranks of the classics where it belongs.

3. The Front Runner by Patricia Nell Warren

Talk about being ahead of her time! When Patricia Nell Warren published The Front Runner in 1974, the idea of an openly gay Olympic athlete was virtually unthinkable. But this novel about an athlete’s love affair with his male coach went on to become a surprise bestseller, eventually moving more than ten million copies. How could this be? Credit Warren’s deceptively simple prose and her exceptionally moving story. A garland of olive leaves to the author of this breakthrough novel!

4. At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill

Jim is quiet and studious, and Doyler is brash and outspoken. Jamie O’Neill’s 2001 novel is about the unlikely love affair between these two Irish men in Dublin at the time of the 1916 Easter Uprising. With its stream-of-consciousness style, the challenging, but masterful novel has been compared to James Joyce’s Ulysses. The novel won the 2001 Lambda Award for Gay Men’s Fiction — and has only seen its reputation grow since then.