Shine [Paperback]

Fiction. LGBT Studies. Told in vignettes and through multiple viewpoints, SHINE is the story of a young hustler who navigates streets, sex, and family, only to discover the light of the dark can be cruel....

SHINE is tenderness incarnate. All the love, violence and need of a life-time happen in the time it takes to read this brilliant, brief and searing new book by Donnelle McGee. I was altered by the reading of it. Then I read it again. —Bhanu Kapil

Donnelle McGee finds the intersection of elegy, violence, and eros in Shine. His novella etches into language the longing, bewilderment, affection, and grief of lovers, family members, and strangers. Crafted in finely compressed narrative fragments, McGee's story details the kind of material and psychic anguish most American writers would rather not consider. McGee gazes into the most difficult material unflinchingly. His pacing and language will keep you hooked with astonishing understatement and compassion. For its sustained terror and love, SHINE is an utterly singular debut. —Patrick Rosal