This list includes exceptional works about Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender experience. Authors are usually limited to one title. All available public domain works (Shakespeare, Whitman, Wilde, many more) link to free, unabridged copies. For biographical and historical information, see the glbtq encyclopedia. And don't forget to check out 100 best gay and lesbian books.

[visit GLBT Literature for more info]



Contemporary Literature

Allison, Dorothy

Bastard Out of Carolina

Young woman survives a brutal childhood; 1992

Alther, Lisa

Kinflicks

Coming out in tumultuous 1950s/60s; 1976

Barker, Pat

Regeneration

World War I through historical and fictional characters; author continues trilogy with Eye in the Door and Ghost Road; 1992

Bartlett, Neil

Ready to Catch Him Should He Fall

Passionate, experimental novel about gay and straight families; 1990

Bolaño, Robert

By Night in Chile

Last night of a gay priest who secretly instructed the dictator Pinochet; 2000

Bram, Christopher

Surprising Myself

A moving exploration of gay, and many other, relationships; 1987

Bram, Christopher

Father of Frankenstein

Fiction about the last days of great filmmaker James Whale; 1995

Brown, Rita Mae

Rubyfruit Jungle

Spunky lesbian comes out with a bang; 1973

Burgess, Anthony

Earthly Powers

Relationship of gay novelist and Pope; 1980

Cameron, Peter

The Weekend

Three people remember their dead friend; 1994

Chabon, Michael

Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Two brilliant cousins create a comic book superhero, in this epic Pulitzer Prize-winning novel; 2000

Chatwin, Bruce

On the Black Hill

80 years in lives of Welsh twin brothers; 1982

Cooper, Dennis

Closer

Obsessions about an enigmatic man; 1989

Cunningham, Michael

The Hours

Experiences of three women, including Virginia Woolf, spanning the 20th c.; 1998

Dykewomon, Elana

Riverfinger Women

Woman triumphs over prostitution and abuse; 1974

Ellis, Bret Easton

Less Than Zero

How a group of nihilistic Generation X college students spend their Christmas vacation; 1985

Feinberg, Leslie

Stone Butch Blues

Lesbian passes as man in 1960s NY; 1993

Ferro, Robert

The Family of Max Desir

Man tries to unite his gay and straight lives; 1983

Flagg, Fannie

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

Two women become partners, in love and business, running a small Alabama cafe; 1987

Forrest, Katherine

Curious Wine

Best-selling lesbian love story; 1983

Fox, John

Boys on the Rock

Tender, funny gay coming of age novel; 1984

Glass, Julia

Three Junes

Loves and losses in a Scottish family during three fateful summers; 2002

Grimsley, Jim

Dream Boy

Boy survives incest through a friend's love; 1995

Grumbach, Doris

The Ladies

Based on historical 18th c. lesbian couple in Wales; 1984

Harris, Bertha

Lover

Experimental work "from the libido"; 1976

Holleran, Andrew

Dancer from the Dance

Life in '70s NYC fast lane; 1978

Hollinghurst, Alan

The Swimming-Pool Library

Interracial affair in pre-AIDS London; 1988

Kenan, Randall

Let the Dead Bury Their Dead

Stories about the diverse people living in a small North Carolina town; 1992

Leavitt, David

Lost Language of Cranes

Father and son, both gay, come to terms; 1986

Lurie, Alison

The Last Resort

"Perfect housewife" explores lesbian life; 1998

Maupin, Armistead

Tales of the City Series

Six funny, moving novels centering on San Francisco's freewheeling 28 Barbary Lane; 1978-91

McCauley, Stephen

The Object of My Affection

Gay man and straight woman share a Brooklyn apartment – and their lives; 1987

Monette, Paul

Halfway Home

Dying drag performance artist finds love; 1991

Nadas, Peter

Book of Memories

Magnum opus about postwar Hungary; 1985

O'Neill, Jamie

At Swim, Two Boys

Two young men seek political and romantic freedom during Dublin's tumultuous 1916 Easter Uprising; 2001

Plante, David

Francoeur Trilogy

Boy grows up in a Franco-American home: Family, Country, & Woods; 1978-82

Puig, Manuel

Kiss of the Spider Woman

Apolitical gay man and straight revolutionary share Argentine prison cell; 1976

Purdy, James

In a Shallow Grave

Passionate, lyrical tale of a disfigured war veteran returned home; 1975

Renault, Mary

The Persian Boy

Alexander the Great and his lover; 1972

Russell, Paul

The Coming Storm

Four interwoven perspectives on a student/teacher affair at a private boys' school; 1999

Sadownick, Douglas

Sacred Lips of the Bronx

Moves between a young man's first love in the 1970s Bronx and relationships in 1991 L.A.; 1994

Schulman, Sarah

Rat Bohemia

Cast-off lesbians and a gay man form a family; 1995

Selvadurai, Shyam

Funny Boy

Growing up gay in Sri Lanka; 1996

Shockley, Ann Allen

Loving Her

Landmark novel of interracial lesbian relationship; 1974

Spanbauer, Tom

The Man Who Fell in Love With the Moon

Taming of Wild West, as told by a gay shaman; 1992

Swift, Edward

Splendora

Man returns to hometown as Miss Jessie; 1978

Tóibín, Colm

The Story of the Night

Gay man comes of age during Argentina's violent struggle towards democracy in the 1980s; 1993

Truong, Monique

The Book of Salt

Fictional memoir of Vietnamese cook to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas; 2003

Walker, Alice

The Color Purple

Abused woman finds self-acceptance through love with a blues singer; 1982

Warren, Patricia Nell

The Front Runner

Track coach and star runner fall in love; 1974

Waters, Sarah

Tipping the Velvet

Young lesbian seeks a "life of sensation" in 1890s England; 1999

White, Edmund

A Boy's Own Story

A self-corrupting gay youth in the 1950s; 1982

Winterson, Jeanette

Oranges are Not the Only Fruit

Lesbian teen grows up in British fundamentalist family; 1985

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