num_pages: 305
description: The year is 1989 and Mark Doty's life has reached a state of enviable equilibrium. His reputation as a poet of formidable talent is growing, he enjoys his work as a college professor and, perhaps most importantly, he is deeply in love with his partner of many years, Wally Roberts. The harmonious existence these two men share is shattered, however, when they learn that Wally has tested positive for the HIV virus. From diagnosis to the initial signs of deterioration to the heartbreaking hour when Wally is released from his body's ruined vessel, Heaven's Coastis an intimate chronicle of love, its hardships, and its innumerable gifts. We witness Doty's passage through the deepest phase of grief -- letting his lover go while keeping him firmly alive in memory and heart -- and, eventually beyond, to the slow reawakening of the possibilities of pleasure. Part memoir, part journal, part elegy for a life of rare communication and beauty, Heaven's Coast evinces the same stunning honesty, resplendent descriptive power and rapt attention to the physical landscape that has won Doty's poetry such attention and acclaim.
language: English
title: Heaven's Coast: A Memoir
titlecomplete: Heaven's Coast: A Memoir
genres: LGBT, Gay, Biography Memoir, Death, Biography, Health, Memoir, Poetry, Nonfiction, Queer
ratings_count: 1054
awards: awardedAt: 852105600000
name: Stonewall Book Award
category: Non-Fiction, awardedAt: 852105600000
name: Randy Shilts Award
category: Gay Nonfiction, awardedAt: 852105600000
name: PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction Writers, awardedAt: 852105600000
name: Lambda Literary Award
category: Gay Men's Biography/Autobiography
publisher: Harper Perennial