num_pages: 210
description: William Lyon's past forced him to become someone he isn't. Conflicted and unable to maintain the charade he separates from his wife and takes a job as caretaker at a former mental hospital. Jelleys Valley State Insane Asylum was the largest mental hospital in California for well over a century but it now stands empty. William thinks the decrepit institution is the perfect place to finish his dissertation and wait for his divorce to become final. In town William meets Colby Anderson who minds the local store and post office. Unlike William Colby is cute upbeat and flamboyantly out. Although initially put off by Colbys mannerisms William comes to value their new friendship and even accepts Colby's offer to ease him into the world of gay sex.Williams self-image begins to change when he discovers a tin box hidden in an asylum wall since the 1940s. It contains letters secretly written by Bill a patient who was sent to the asylum for being homosexual. The letters hit close to home and William comes to care about Bill and his fate. With Colbys help he hopes the words written seventy years ago will give him courage to be his true self.
language: English
title: The Tin Box
publisher: Dreamspinner Press