Giovanni's Room (Deluxe Edition)

A striking deluxe edition of James Baldwin’s groundbreaking novel that was decades ahead of its time with its frank exploration of sexuality and self-acceptance—named one of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the past 100 years

“Baldwin writes . . . with unusual candor and yet with such dignity and intensity.”—The New York Times

Includes a new introduction by award-winning poet Kevin Young and special cover art featuring a portrait of James Baldwin by his friend and contemporary Beauford Delaney

In 1950s Paris, a young American expatriate finds himself caught between his repressed desires and conventional morality. David has just proposed marriage to his American girlfriend, but while she is away on a trip he becomes involved in a doomed affair with a bartender named Giovanni. With sharp, probing insight, James Baldwin’s classic novel delves into the mysteries of love and tells a deeply moving story that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart.JAMES BALDWIN (1924-1987) was a novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, appeared in 1953 to excellent reviews, and his essay collections Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time were best sellers that made him an influential figure in the growing civil rights movement. Baldwin spent much of his life in France, where he moved to escape the racism and homophobia of the United States. He died in France in 1987, a year after being made a Commander of the French Legion of Honor.