"Bernie is a talented young photographer who has quit taking photographs in favor of drinking and drifting around Philadelphia. Leah is ambitious yet flailing grad student and journalist who must know the answer to every question. When Bernie replies to Leah's ad for a new housemate, they tentatively begin the kind of uncategorizable, queer relationship that can only flourish between two people who deeply understand each others' dreams and dissatisfactions. When Bernie's college professor dies in rural Pennsylvania and leaves her a complicated inheritance, Leah volunteers to accompany Bernie, turning the jaunt into a road trip with an ambitious mission: to document 2018 America in words and photographs. What ensues is a three-week journey through the state of Pennsylvania in which Bernie and Leah have eye-opening conversations with a wide-range of Americans, and develop a piercing intimacy that cracks each of them wide open. Ultimately, they create a joint work of genre-defying art that leaves them--and our nation--forever changed"--
After becoming housemates in Philadelphia, two aspiring artists, Leah and Bernie, embark on a three-week road trip across America, documenting the heart of the nation through words and photographs while facing their own artistic and romantic destinies.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER Two young housemates embark on a road trip to discover themselves in this exceptional, keenly observed meditation on art and love (People) in a fractured America, by the award-winning author of The Third Rainbow Girl
Tender, introspective, and at times delightfully funny, this is the perfect book to bring on a road trip.Time (LGBTQ+ Books to Read for Pride)
A Most Anticipated Book of 2024: Los Angeles Times, Harpers Bazaar, Lit Hub, Debutiful, LGBTQ Reads, The Rumpus, Lilith, Hey Alma, Them, Kirkus Reviews
What does it feel like, standing in the moments that will mark your life?
When Bernie replies to Leahs ad for a new housemate in Philadelphia, the two begin an intense and defiantly uncategorizable friendship based on a mutual belief in their art, and one another. Both aspire to capture the world around them: Leah through her writing; Bernie through her photography.
After Bernies former photography professor, the renowned yet tarnished Daniel Dunn, dies and leaves her a complicated inheritance, Leah volunteers to accompany Bernie to his home in rural Pennsylvania, turning the jaunt into a road trip with an ambitious mission: to document America through words and photographs.
What ensues is a journey into the heart of the nation, bringing the housemates into conversation with people from all walks of lifethe absurd dreamers and failures of this wide, wide countryas they try to make sense of the times they are living in. Along the way, Leah and Bernie discover what it means to chase their own ideas and dreams, and to embrace what they are capable of both romantically and artistically.
Warm and insightful, Housemates is a story of youth and freedoma glorious celebration of queer life, and how art and love might save us all.
