The Vast Fields of Ordinary

By Nick Burd

Subjects: Fiction, coming of age, LGBT, Summer, LGBT Novel, High school graduates, Juvenile Fiction, Family problems, First person narratives, Queer Literature, young adult novel, Homosexuality, fiction, Dating (social customs), fiction, LGBT Youth Fiction, LGBTQ young adult, Dating (Social customs), Coming of age, Iowa, fiction, Gay teenagers, Fiction, Children's fiction, Homosexuality, Bildungsromans, LGBTQ, Stonewall Book Awards, Juvenile fiction, Eighteen-year-old men, Family, fiction, Coming out (Sexual orientation)

Description: It's Dade Hamilton's last summer at home. He has a crappy job at Food World, a boyfriend who won't publicly acknowledge his existence (maybe because Pablo also has a girlfriend), and parents on the verge of a divorce. College is Dade's shining beacon of possibility, a horizon to keep him from floating away. Then he meets the mysterious Alex Kincaid. Falling in real love finally lets Dade come out of the closet and, ironically, ignites a ruthless passion in Pablo. But just when true happiness has set in, tragedy shatters the dreamy curtain of summer, and Dade will use every ounce of strength he's gained to break from his past and start fresh with the future.