Queer love is not conventional, it was never afforded that luxury. Holding hands on the sidewalk is a bolder move than it should be. Finding our other half, building a family and making a safe haven is what we strive for, but it comes at a price, a long struggle.
This novel is entirely because of missed connections and found companionship. Its about where we look for love and chosen families. Tom Rob Smith has delivered a classic love story, where love is the greatest hope and equality is the greatest struggle.
Its a funny, gorgeous and quietly revolutionary love story. The author reminds us that queer love can be messy but also miraculous at once. We get to witness conversations between bright, sensitive people; the warmth, the sharpness and intelligence of each character. This book is about choosing friends we can talk to, and laugh with, and cry with. The dialogue is direct, innocent and sharp, always reflective, cutting to the big questions; what is love, happiness, friendship and marriage. The author has birthed a keenly observed love story that follows Danny and Luis, navigating twenty years together with burdens they each carry from less accepting times and the continued impact of these adversities.
TWENTY YEARS TOGETHER is a brilliant tale, often funny love story, expertly crafted with wholesome charm that’s touching and constantly surprising. Danny and Luis have been a couple for over twenty years, piecing and building a life and home together.
The only thing they didn’t have was a marriage. When they met it was illegal. Eventually the law changed, and Danny decides to propose on a Scottish hilltop, to the love of his life. Luis loves Danny but does he love marriage? Is the past catching up to them both? Is everything that they have worked for going to fall apart?
TWENTY YEARS TOGETHER is a deeply felt and remarkably tender, a profound exploration of the bonds we create with each other, of the tension between living authentically against the expectations of family and community, and most of all, of desire, romance and love.
Simply put, Tom Rob Smith’s latest novel is a shattering and pivotal love story, the most personal piece of storytelling he’s written to date. What are the takeaways? The secret of long lasting love and marriage is to stop trying to change each other around the fifteenth year. Lasting love doesn’t look like the fairy tales we see in movies. Happy long-term couples don’t necessarily fight less; they fight smarter. This story resounds with a couple who learn to tell the difference between preferences and principles. Compromise on preferences but stand firm on principles. Respecting each other’s separate lives is the sauce that keeps it real!
Tom Rob Smith is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter, creator of the international bestselling CHILD 44 trilogy. From leading us through, history snowy terrains and the inner lives of spies, he turns his focus inward exploring the intimate landscape of love, chosen family, and growing older within the LGBTQ+ community
