Name: Book to be discussed: "Guapa" by Saleem Haddad
Start: 2025-10-07T18:30:00-04:00
End: 2025-10-07T20:00:00-04:00
Location: Jefferson Market Library

"**A debut novel that tells the story of Rasa, a young gay man coming of age in the Middle East.**

Set over the course of twenty-four hours, *Guapa* follows Rasa, a gay man living in an unnamed Arab country, as he tries to carve out a life for himself in the midst of political and social upheaval. Rasa spends his days translating for Western journalists and pining for the nights when he can sneak his lover, Taymour, into his room. One night Rasa's grandmother—the woman who raised him—catches them in bed together. The following day Rasa is consumed by the search for his best friend Maj, a fiery activist and drag queen star of the underground bar, Guapa, who has been arrested by the police. Ashamed to go home and face his grandmother, and reeling from the potential loss of the three most important people in his life, Rasa roams the city’s slums and prisons, the lavish weddings of the country’s elite, and the bars where outcasts and intellectuals drink to a long-lost revolution. Each new encounter leads him closer to confronting his own identity, as he revisits his childhood and probes the secrets that haunt his family. As Rasa confronts the simultaneous collapse of political hope and his closest personal relationships, he is forced to discover the roots of his alienation and try to re-emerge into a society that may never accept him." — goodreads.com

After the meeting, we head over to Julius' (one of the oldest operating gay bars in NYC) to chat about things other than books. Julius' is at 159 West 10th Street (on the corner of Waverly Place, about a block from the library). www.juliusbarny.com

Jon Tomlinson

NYC Gay Guys' Book Club

Identity & Language

Book Club

Gay Professionals

LGBT Social

Gay Men

Gay Friends

Men's Book Club

Book to be discussed:  "Guapa" by Saleem Haddad

Jefferson Market Library

Share

NYC Gay Guys' Book Club

Book to be discussed: "Guapa" by Saleem Haddad

NYC Gay Guys' Book Club

Details

Members are also interested in