Like a Love Story

Author: Abdi Nazemian

£8.99

ISBN: 9781788957946 Category:

PUBLICATION DATE: June 5 2025 (Not yet published - orders will be dispatched on or around publication date)

BINDING: Paperback

EXTENT: 448 pages

DIMENSIONS: 198 x 129 mm

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From a Stonewall Honor-winning author comes a bighearted, sprawling epic about friendship and love and the revolutionary act of living life to the fullest in the face of impossible odds. Perfect for fans of?Last Night at the Telegraph Club,The Black Flamingo and?If You Still Recognise Me.?

It’s 1989 in New York City, and for three teens, the world is changing.

Reza is an Iranian boy who has just moved to the city with his mother to live with his stepfather and stepbrother. He’s terrified that someone will guess the truth he can barely acknowledge about himself. Reza knows he’s gay, but all he knows of gay life are the media’s images of men dying of AIDS.

Judy is an aspiring fashion designer who worships her uncle Stephen, a gay man with AIDS who devotes his time to activism as a member of ACT UP. Judy has never imagined finding romance … until she falls for Reza and they start dating.

Art is Judy’s best friend, their school’s only out and proud teen. He’ll never be who his conservative parents want him to be, so he rebels by documenting the AIDS crisis through his photographs.

As Reza and Art grow closer, Reza struggles to find a way out of his deception that won’t break Judy’s heart – and destroy the most meaningful friendship he’s ever known.

A Time Magazine Best YA Book of all Time.

""Like a Love Story honours the activists who fought for equality and freedom for LGBTQ+ people in the late 1980s - a fight that continues today. Nazemian weaves multiple themes of identity into a story of family, friendship, and romance, facing hate and indifference with love and strength.""

""A gorgeous, heart-wrenching book that explores love, loss, and forgiveness in all of their many forms. Abdi Nazemian deftly shows how we can only move forward by examining and embracing the past, and how anger and injustice can pave the way for a better and more hopeful future.""

""One of the 15 biggest (and best) YA books of the summer""

""At the height of the 1980s AIDS crisis, three teens grapple with love and friendship... [A] truly lovely romance to cherish. Deeply moving.""

""A love letter to queerness, self-expression, and individuality (also Madonna) that never shies away from the ever-present fear within the queer community of late 80s New York ... made me feel so full of hope, love, courage, pride, and awe for the many people who fought for love and self-expression in the face of discrimination, cruelty, and death. A book for warriors, divas, artists, queens, individuals, activists, trend setters, and anyone searching for the courage to be themselves.""

""A fresh and poignant narrative about friends, family, friends who become family, and a society that is not always compassionate to those who need it most. I love this book with my entire heart. What a gift Abdi Nazemian has given us.""

Meet the author

Abdi Nazemian

Abdi Nazemian is the author of The Chandler Legacies, Like a Love Story, a Stonewall Honor Book, and The Authentics. His novel The Walk-In Closet won the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Debut Fiction….