Recommendations from our site
“Greenwell’s novel (although it could equally be described as a collection of short stories, or a series of vignettes, or – as he has described it in the past – ‘a lieder cycle’) portrays an unnamed American man living and teaching in Sofia, Bulgaria. Autobiographical, in the loosest sense, it is a portrait of a gay man navigating a life in an often homophobic country, forging intimate connections, and bearing witness to political and social upheaval. A clear, calm and rather beautiful book that I admire a great deal.” Read more...
Cal Flyn, Five Books Editor
“The follow up to his lyrical 2016 debut, What Belongs to You. As with the earlier book, Cleanness is a candid portrayal of an American expat living as a gay man in conservative Sofia, alienated and struggling to form long-term relationships. Greenwell says that he thinks of himself more of a poet than a novelist, and certainly Cleanness is infused with the poet’s sensibility.” Read more...
Editors’ Picks: Notable New Novels of Early 2020
Cal Flyn, Five Books Editor
