Giovanni's Room

A beautiful new Clothbound edition of Baldwin's ground-breaking novel, which established him as one of the great American writers of his time

'Audacious... remarkable... elegant and courageous' Caryl Phillips

David, a young American in 1950s Paris, is waiting for his fiancée to return from vacation in Spain. But when he meets Giovanni, a handsome Italian barman, the two men are drawn into an intense affair. After three months David's fiancée returns and, denying his true nature, he rejects Giovanni for a 'safe' future as a married man. His decision eventually brings tragedy.

Filled with passion, regret and longing, this story of a fated love triangle has become a landmark of gay writing. James Baldwin caused outrage as a black author writing about white homosexuals, yet for him the issues of race, sexuality and personal freedom were eternally intertwined.

‘Baldwin, in this novel, made clear that he could work wonders with the light and shade of intimacy’ Colm Tóibín, The New Yorker