Winner of the Stonewall Book Award/Barbara Gittings Literature AwardFinalist for the Binghamton University's John Gardner Fiction Book AwardFinalist for the Saroyan Prize for Fiction Longlisted for the Chautauqua Prize"Hilarious, Devious, Original, and Unforgettable."-Karen Russell This series of powerful, intertwining stories illuminates Daley Kushner's world-the family, friends, and community that have both formed and constrained him, and his new life in San Francisco. Back home, the desert preys on those who cannot conform: an alfalfa farmer on the outskirts of town; two young girls whose curiosity leads to danger; a black politician who once served as his school's confederate mascot; Daley's mother, an immigrant from Armenia; and Daley himself, introspective and queer. Meanwhile, in another desert on the other side of the world, war threatens to fracture Daley's most meaningful-and most fraught-connection to home, his friendship with Robert Karinger. A luminous debut, Desert Boys by Chris McCormick traces the development of towns into cities, of boys into men, and the haunting effects produced when the two transformations overlap. Both a bildungsroman and a portrait of a changing place, the book mines the terrain between the desire to escape and the hunger to belong. | Desert Boys by Chris Mccormick, Paperback | Indigo Chapters