Edinburgh - Paperback

by Alexander Chee (Author)

From the best-selling author of How To Write an Autobiographical Novel, Alexander Chee's award-winning debut is "One of the great queer novels . . . of our time."--Brandon Taylor, GQ

Twelve-year-old Fee is a shy Korean-American boy growing up in Maine whose powerful soprano voice wins him a place as section leader of the first sopranos in his local boys choir. But when, on a retreat, Fee discovers how the director treats the boys he makes section leader, he is so ashamed, he says nothing of the abuse, not even when Peter, Fee's best friend, is in line to be next. The director is eventually arrested, and Fee tries to forgive himself for his silence. But when Peter takes his own life, Fee blames only himself.

Years later, after he has carefully pieced a new life together, Fee takes a job at a private school near his hometown. There he meets a young student, Arden, who, to his shock, is the picture of Peter--and the son of his old choir director.

Told with "the force of a dream and the heft of a life" (Annie Dillard), this is a haunting, lyrically written debut novel that marked Chee "as a major talent whose career will bear watching" (Publisher's Weekly).

Back Jacket

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
Winner of the James Michener/Copernicus Society Fellowship Prize
Lambda Literary Foundation Editor s Choice Award

[Chee] says volumes with just a few incendiary words. New York Times

Arresting . . . profound and poetic . . . Chee s voice is worth listening to. San Francisco Chronicle

Alexander Chee gets my vote for the best new novelist I ve read in some time. Edinburgh is moody, dramatic and pure. Edmund White

Twelve-year-old Fee is a shy Korean American boy and a newly named section leader of the first sopranos in his local boys choir. But when Fee learns how the director treats his section leaders, he is so ashamed he says nothing of the abuse, not even when Peter, his best friend, is in line to be next. When the director is arrested, Fee tries to forgive himself for his silence. But when Peter takes his own life, Fee blames only himself. In the years that follow he slowly builds a new life, teaching near his hometown. There he meets a young student who is the picture of Peter and is forced to confront the past he believed was gone. Told with the force of a dream and the heft of a life, * Edinburgh marked Chee as a major talent whose career will bear watching (Publishers Weekly).

A coming-of-age tale in the grand Romantic tradition, where passions run high, Cupid stalks Psyche, and love shares the dance floor with death . . . A lovely, nuanced, never predictable portrait of a creative soul in the throes of becoming. Washington Post

Alexander Chee is the author of two novels and the recipient of a Whiting Award and the National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in fiction. His writing has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Tin House, Slate, and on NPR, among others, and he is a contributing editor at the New Republic. He lives in New York City.

*Annie Dillard
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Author Biography

ALEXANDER CHEE is the author of Edinburgh and The Queen of the Night. He is the recipient of a Whiting Award and an NEA fellowship in fiction. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Tin House, and on NPR, among others, and he is a contributing editor at the New Republic.