Our Evenings: A Novel by Alan Hollinghurst (10/8/24)

This piercing novel from "one of our most gifted writers" (The Boston Globe) is a portrait of modern England through the lens of one man's acutely observed and often unnerving experience, as he struggles with race and class, art and sexuality, love and the cruel shock of violence.Did I have a grievance? Most of us, without looking far, could find something that had harmed us, and oppressed us, and unfairly held us back. I tried not to dwell on it, thought it healthier not to, though I'd lived my short life so far in a chaos of privilege and prejudice.Dave Win is thirteen years old in 1961, when he first goes to stay with the wealthy Hadlows, who sponsor his scholarship at a boarding school where their son Giles is his classmate. This weekend of board games with complicated rules, multicourse meals, and conversation about theater and modern art-so different from the quiet life he and his mother share in their small apartment-opens up heady new possibilities for Dave, even as it exposes