Exquisite Things

Alternating perspectives depict two estranged immortal teens embarking on a century-spanning romance in this weighty novel from Nazemian (Only This Beautiful Moment). In 1895 London, Persian American 17-year-old Shahriar is discovered having sex with a male classmate and is disowned by his father. After rescuing pages of the original manuscript of The Picture of Dorian Gray from a fire, Shahriar learns that the pages granted him his wish for immortality. Later, in 1920 Boston, Shahriar meets white-cued Oliver, a talented pianist and wrestler hoping to attend Harvard alongside his cousin, who introduces Oliver to the campus’s underground queer scene. When Oliver must go into hiding following an incident, he’s devastated to realize he’s become immortal as well, cementing his belief that he’ll never see his loved ones again. Oliver reconnects with Shahriar in 1980s London, where Shahriar lives with transgender Jamaican American mother-figure Lily, who ignites within both boys a passion for queer activism. As the plot unfurls, time-jumping sections build in intensity, eventually revealing the climactic conflict that led to Shahriar and Oliver’s fraught present-day relationship. The nonlinear plot is occasionally confusing, and the period-specific dialogue is somewhat overwrought. Nevertheless, Nazemian artfully spins a resonant, melancholy charting of the central duo’s uneven progress toward social equity and personal acceptance alongside their yearning for joy and their stirring love story. Ages 14–up. Agent: John Cusick, Folio Literary. (Sept.)