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It’s 2001, and twenty-four-year-old Gordon—handsome, sensitive, and eager for direction—takes a bus from Minnesota to New York City because it’s the only place for a young gay man to go. As he begins to settle into the city’s punishing rhythm, he gets a job walking rich Manhattanites’ dogs. But it isn’t until he stumbles into the West Village brownstone of two of his clients, the powerful gallery owners Phillip and Nicola, that Gordon learns how much the world has hidden from him—and what he’s capable of doing in order to get it for himself.
A lush, heart-quickening novel about family and art, sex and class, and the terror of self-discovery, Thomas Grattan’s In Tongues chronicles Gordon’s perilous pursuit of belonging from the Midwest to New York and, later, to Europe and Mexico City. As he floats further into Phillip and Nicola’s exclusive universe, and as lines blur between employee, muse, lover, and mentor, Gordon’s charm, manipulation, and growing ambition begin to escape his own control, in turn threatening to unravel the lives, and lies, of those around him.
Anchored by winsome lyricism, glinting intellect, and a main character whose yearnings and mistakes come to feel like our own, In Tongues crackles with fierce longing and pointed emotion, further confirming Grattan as a rare chronicler of young adulthood’s joys and devastations.
Author: Thomas Grattan
Hardback Published 27 August 2024 288 page
Read and Recommended by Graeme:
"Cited by Edmund White as one of the best of the new generation of gay male writers, this is Thomas Grattan’s second novel after The Recent East. The setting is Manhattan, 2001, and 24-year-old Gordon has fled Minnesota after his relationship implodes, helping himself to some of his boyfriend’s cash on his way out the door. Impulsive acts such as petty theft are second nature to Gordon, with little thought to the consequences. After a grim start in New York stacking shelves at a supermarket, Gordon lands a job dog-walking which introduces him to a whole different world of wealthy New Yorkers. He catches the eye of a gallery-owing gay couple Philip and Nicola and walking their dogs eventually leads to a gig as their personal assistant. One of the strengths of the novel is its lack of sentimentality. Gordon screws up many times and pays the consequences. His religious father and his new wife have problems with Gordon’s sexuality but there is no affirming reconciliation - the disconnect festers. In the novel’s final section, some time has passed, Gordon is older and a little wiser. A chance encounter with Philip brings a satisfying conclusion to the novel and a sense that our young man has moved past his self-destructive youth to some extent. Although he may still prone to rash choices, he can recognise when he needs to course correct!."