Giovanni's Room

James Baldwin's groundbreaking novel — whose frank exploration of sexuality and self-acceptance was decades ahead of its time — named one of The Atlantic's Great American Novels of the past 100 years.

"Baldwin writes . . . with unusual candor and yet with such dignity and intensity." —The New York Times

In 1950s Paris, a young American expatriate finds himself caught between his repressed desires and conventional morality. David has just proposed marriage to his American girlfriend, but while she is away on a trip he becomes involved in a doomed affair with a bartender named Giovanni. With sharp, probing insight, James Baldwin's classic novel delves into the mysteries of love and tells a deeply moving story that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart.

Product Details

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publish Date: September 12, 2013
• Pages: 176
• Language: English
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9780345806567

About the Author

JAMES BALDWIN (1924–1987) was a novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, appeared in 1953 to excellent reviews, and his essay collections Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time were bestsellers that made him an influential figure in the growing civil rights movement. Baldwin spent much of his life in France, where he moved to escape the racism and homophobia of the United States. He died in France in 1987, a year after being made a Commander of the French Legion of Honor.