Nova Scotia House - Charlie Porter

Nova Scotia House by Charlie Porter / 240-page paperback published in 2025 by Nightboat Books / ISBN 9781643622002

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 GOLDSMITHS PRIZE

Nova Scotia House takes us to the heart of a relationship, a community and an era, both a love story and a lament.

In this profound meditation on grief, Johnny looks back at his relationship with his life partner, Jerry, after his AIDS-related death. When they met, nearly thirty years ago, Johnny was 19, Jerry was 45. They made a life on their own terms in Jerry’s flat: 1, Nova Scotia House. Johnny is still there today—but Jerry is gone, and so is the world they knew.

Intimate, visionary, and profoundly original—as well as raw, hot, and hilarious—Nova Scotia House marks the debut of a vibrant new voice in contemporary fiction.

"One of the best things I’ve read in many, many years; it is an extraordinary work of the imagination, and there is so much heart and longing in it that it filled my soul.”—Hilton Als

“I truly think Charlie Porter is doing something new: forging a radically direct language for describing a whole new way of inhabiting the world.”—Olivia Laing