Book Club

Book Club’s next read is ‘When You Call My Name’ by Tucker Shaw

Join the live author discussion with Christina Pascucci Ciampa on Wednesday, July 26 at 6 p.m.

July 3, 2023

This July, Boston.com’s Book Club will keep the spotlight on LGBTQ+ stories with our book pick, “When You Call My Name” by Tucker Shaw.

If the name Tucker Shaw looks familiar to you, you may know the author from a viral Twitter thread about what it was like to experience the HIV/AIDS epidemic as a young gay man. Like his heartbreaking thread, his debut novel focuses on the complicated coming-of-age many gay men and teenagers experienced in 1990.

The novel centers on Adam, a seventeen-year-old falling in love for the first time in New York City. Meanwhile, upstate, Ben has just left his home after his mother finds his hidden gay magazines and heads for New York. Adam and Ben’s paths cross when Adam discovers his new love is severely sick and hospitalized. After meeting, the two lean on each other to get through these difficult times and learn how to build a found family.

The novel releases on paperback later this month, but when it was initially published last summer, Gay Times called it the “summer’s most powerful LGBTQ+ novel.” This is a story of friendship and queer love that is “a brilliant affirmation of the power of love on so many levels, with a wide range of appeal,” according to Booklist. And while the 90s may not seem so far off, the book is technically a historical fiction, set during a pivotal time for the queer community. Shaw so deftly portrays the epidemic that gripped the community during that time that The Denver Post called the book a “love letter to 1990 New York City.”

“Tucker Shaw invokes late-20th century New York City so tangibly you can smell the cheese pizza, hear the yellow taxis honking and feel the frigid air on the back of your neck,” wrote reviewer John Wenzel. “It’s, at last, a story of friendship and hope and clinging to family (however defined) through the worst times imaginable. Devotion and guilt. Exhaustion and support.”

This may be Shaw’s first novel, but he’s not new to the world of writing. Shaw has decades of experience writing and editing for magazines, newspapers, digital media, and more. You can find his work in Kirkus Reviews, The Wall Street Journal, New York, Out, and Parade, among others.

Shaw will discuss “When You Call My Name” with Christina Pascucci Ciampa, owner of All She Wrote Books, an “intersectional, inclusive feminist and queer bookstore” based in Somerville. Ciampa started her career in marketing but was inspired to open her own bookstore after reading “The Feminist Bookstore Movement” by Kristen Hogan. Although the timing wasn’t ideal as she opened the store in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the store has proven to be successful despite initial obstacles.

Located at 451 Artisan Way in Somerville, the bookstore is open for (masked) browsing and curbside pickup. At the shop, you’ll find a curated collection of inclusive stories across all genres as well as a host of events including queer story hours and book clubs.