Real Life, by Brandon Taylor

Taylor’s debut novel is a rich and intimate portrait of the life of a Black gay grad student on the fringes of predominantly white normative academia. Unfolding over a single weekend , it follows Wallace as he  endures the aftershocks of painful memories from his growing up as well as the abrasions that come with being an outsider. Taylor is a master at conveying his character's acute discomfort, and what initially seems a typical campus novel soon becomes a stirring meditation on  race, sexuality, grief, trauma, and how these affect one’s personhood. In prose as accomplished as his psychological insight, Taylor delivers a difficult and beautiful work that avoids tidy resolutions and demonstrates the ways pain helps make life real.