AARP Hearing Center
![a couple sitting together reading a book a couple sitting together reading a book](https://cdn.aarp.net/content/dam/aarpe/en/home/entertainment/books/info-2021/recent-lgbtq-books/_jcr_content/root/container_main/container_body_main/container_body1/container_body_cf/container_image/articlecontentfragment/cfimage.coreimg.50.932.png/content/dam/aarp/entertainment/books/2023/06/1140-couple-reading-book-together.png)
Looking for some fantastic LGBTQ fiction to enjoy during Pride Month? Here are some wonderful novels released in the past few years to add to your June (and beyond) reading list.
To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
![book cover to paradise by hanya yanagihara book cover to paradise by hanya yanagihara](https://cdn.aarp.net/content/dam/aarpe/en/home/entertainment/books/info-2021/recent-lgbtq-books/_jcr_content/root/container_main/container_body_main/container_body1/container_body_cf/body_one_cf_one/par2/articlecontentfragme/cfimage.coreimg.50.932.png/content/dam/aarp/entertainment/books/2023/06/570x879-to-paradise-hanya-yanagihara.png)
This is another brilliant, dark novel by the author of 2015’s weighty A Little Life, which was rightly short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. To Paradise (2022) is a complex creation featuring three separate stories in different time periods and altered realities, with overlapping characters. The last section is the most searing, likely to stay in your mind for weeks for its vivid portrayal of a near-future — 2093 — pandemic-plagued, warmed-earth dystopian New York City that feels all too real.
Cleanness by Garth Greenwell
![Cleanness Cleanness](https://cdn.aarp.net/content/dam/aarpe/en/home/entertainment/books/info-2021/recent-lgbtq-books/_jcr_content/root/container_main/container_body_main/container_body1/container_body_cf/body_one_cf_one/par4/articlecontentfragme/cfimage.coreimg.50.932.jpeg/content/dam/aarp/entertainment/books/2021/06/1140-cleanness.jpg)
A masterful companion to Greenwell’s 2016 debut What Belongs to You (long-listed for the National Book Award for Fiction), Cleanness (2020) also follows an unnamed American expat as he navigates life as a gay man in Bulgaria, where homosexuality remains taboo. Laid out across three sections, these expertly crafted vignettes explore sex, relationships and political upheaval with captivating lucidity. Greenwell excels at capturing the nuances of inner life and physical intimacy in elegant, unflinching prose.
![member card Image Alt Attribute](https://cdn.aarp.net/content/dam/experience-fragments/uxdia-folder-structure/en/features/membership/inline-membership-promo/default/master5/_jcr_content/root/responsivegrid/container_copy/container/articleimage.coreimg.75.1140.png/content/dam/uxdia/membership-card-d-and-t.png)
LIMITED TIME OFFER: Labor Day Sale!
Join AARP for just $9 per year with a 5-year membership and get a FREE Gift!
![Detransition, Baby Detransition, Baby](https://cdn.aarp.net/content/dam/aarpe/en/home/entertainment/books/info-2021/recent-lgbtq-books/_jcr_content/root/container_main/container_body_main/container_body1/container_body_cf/body_one_cf_one/par5/articlecontentfragme/cfimage.coreimg.50.932.jpeg/content/dam/aarp/entertainment/books/2021/06/1140-detransition-baby.jpg)
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Forget what you thought you knew about love triangles — this debut 2021 novel revolves around an unforgettably unconventional trio. First there’s Ames, who lived as a transgender woman named Amy for several years before detransitioning and living as a man again. Ames is having a fling with his boss, Katrina, and when Katrina learns she is pregnant, Ames turns to his ex-girlfriend Reese, a transgender woman who desperately wants to be a mother, with a radical proposition: that the three of them raise the baby together. What follows is a deeply felt look at identity and longing set among New York’s transgender community that earned Peters a nomination for the 2020 Women’s Prize in Fiction (she’s the first transgender woman to receive the honor), and the PEN/Hemingway award for debut fiction.
More From AARP
8 New Works of LGBTQ Non-Fiction
Recent books explore activism, self-discovery and more