Lambda Literary Award-winner K.M. Soehnlein's Army of Lovers follows a young gay man swept up in the excitement, fury, and poignancy of the AIDS activist group ACT UP. Arriving in New York City full of idealism, Paul discovers the queer community gathering strength in the face of government inaction and social stigma. As he protests, parties, and makes a new home, he finds himself pulling away from his HIV-negative boyfriend to pursue an intense bond with a passionate, HIV-positive artist. Paul's awakening parallels ACT UP's rise, successes, and controversies. And then everything shifts again, as his family is thrust into their own life-and-death struggle that tests him even further. Born out of the author's activism inside the vibrant queer community of the '80s and '90s, Army of Lovers blends history and fiction into an exploration of memory, community, love, and justice.

Winner of the Lambda Literary Award"This first novel is so eloquent because it is hellbent on collaring the reader and telling him or her the whole passionate story." —Edmund White, author of Our Young Man"This is a rich and unflinching book." —The New York Times Book Review"Extraordinary...an exhilarating experience...that Soehnlein has produced as his first novel a work of such maturity and excellence is little short of astounding." —Fenton Johnson, author of Scissors, Paper, RockThe time is the late 1970s—an age of gas shortages, head shops, and Saturday Night Fever. The place, suburban New Jersey. At a time when the teenagers around him are coming of age, Robin MacKenzie is coming undone. While "normal boys" are into cars, sports, and bullying their classmates, Robin enjoys day trips to New York City with his elegant mother, spinning fantastic tales for her amusement in an intimate ritual he has come to...