Finistère(1951)

Michael BronskiFritz Peters

The 1920s. When wealthy American adolescent Matthew Cameron moves to France following his parents' divorce, he struggles to assimilate to his new surroundings. But when a new tennis instructor -- Michel Garnier -- arrives at Matthew's boarding school, a forbidden relationship develops that will have unforeseen consequences.

Published in 1951, Finistère is a trailblazing LGBTQ+ novel. It locates tragedy not in the same-sex nature of the relationship between Matthew and Michel, but rather in the failure of their family, and wider society, to accept their relationship. Having sold over 350,000 copies, Fritz Peters's most successful novel kicked off the explosion of unapologetically gay literature that would be published in the next decades in the United States and Britain. In this context, Finistère was meaningful to a generation of queer readers who struggled to encounter literature that depicted their reality respectfully.

However, Finistère is a meditation on more than just homosexuality and forbidden love. Through its sensitively rendered characters, Peters illuminates culture clash, class conflict, divorce, child-rearing, and the gaps in empathy that can provoke life’s greatest pains. As such, Finistère is a transcendent novel that outlasts its historical moment and will appeal to all lovers of great literature.

--

“It is difficult for most American authors to write a novel about a homosexual affair without making either a tract or an apologia. Mr. Peters has done neither. Instead, he has kept resolutely in focus his great theme: the corruption and murder of innocence.”

-GORE VIDAL