num_pages: 319
description: David Leavitt's extraordinary first novel, now reissued in paperback, is a seminal work about family, sexual identity, home, and loss. Set in the 1980s against the backdrop of a swiftly gentrifying Manhattan, The Lost Language of Cranes tells the story of twenty-five-year-old Philip, who realizes he must come out to his parents after falling in love for the first time with a man. Philip's parents are facing their own crisis: pressure from developers and the loss of their longtime home. But the real threat to this family is Philip's father's own struggle with his latent homosexuality, realized only in his Sunday afternoon visits to gay porn theaters. Philip's admission to his parents and his father's hidden life provoke changes that forever alter the landscape of their worlds.
language: English
title: The Lost Language of Cranes
titlecomplete: The Lost Language of Cranes
characters: Owen Benjamin, Philip Benjamin, Rose Benjamin
genres: Literature, Queer, Novels, Gay Fiction, LGBT, Gay, Fiction, The United States Of America, Contemporary, Romance
ratings_count: 6541
places: New York City, New York
publisher: Penguin