Nova Scotia House [Paperback]

Winner of the 2026 Lambda Literary Award in Gay Fiction
Shortlisted for the 2025 Goldsmiths Prize
Named a 2025 Best Book of the Year byThe Washington PostandThe Guardian

Nova Scotia Housetakes us to the heart of a relationship, a community and an era, both a love story and a lament.

In this profound meditation on grief, Johnny looks back at his relationship with his life partner, Jerry, after his AIDS-related death. When they met, nearly thirty years ago, Johnny was 19, Jerry was 45. They made a life on their own terms in Jerry’s flat: 1, Nova Scotia House. Johnny is still there today—but Jerry is gone, and so is the world they knew.

Intimate, visionary, and profoundly original—as well as raw, hot, and hilarious—Nova Scotia Housemarks the debut of a vibrant new voice in contemporary fiction.USCharlie Porteris a writer, fashion critic and curator. He has written for theFinancial Times, theGuardian,The New York Times,GQ,Luncheon,i-D,andFantastic Man, and has been described as one of the most influential fashion journalists of his time. Porter co-runs the London queer rave Chapter 10, and is a trustee of the Friends of Arnold Circus, where he is also a volunteer gardener. He lives in London."One of the best things I’ve read in many, many years; it is an extraordinary work of the imagination, and there is so much heart and longing in it that it filled my soul.”—Hilton Als

“I truly think Charlie Porter is doing something new: forging a radically direct language for describing a whole new way of inhabiting the world.”—Olivia Laing

“The fiction ofNova Scotia Houseasks both its reader and its author: How can we connect again with radical queerness and countercultural ideas of living? How can we live life as fully, optimistically, and queerly alƒ”