This Love

Jeffs (How to Be a Gentlewoman) delivers an endearing if overlong tale of a queer friendship. Mae, a headstrong lesbian, meets fashionable Ari at a gay bar in Leeds, England, where the two are enrolled at university. Mae is in awe of Ari, an American who transferred from NYU, for his effortless magnetism. She grows confused and jealous, though, after Ari comes out to her as pansexual—she worries he’ll fall in love with another girl and abandon her. Their trust is further eroded by Ari’s effort to brush under the rug a painful scandal that caused him to leave New York, involving his homophobic father and his affair with a much older professor. The narrative tracks Mae and Ari over the decade after their graduation, as they continue to negotiate the shape of their friendship and consider raising children together. The writing can be clunky, especially the dialogue (“By our age you should know for sure if you like red wine or white wine best,” Mae says to Ari, frustrated by another woman’s bisexuality. “It’s a cop-out to say you like rosé. I don’t want to drink bisexual wine”). Fortunately, Jeffs adeptly develops the characters through their flaws and transformations. Patient readers will be rewarded. Agent: Kiele Raymond, Thompson Literary. (Jan.)