Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian

Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian

Stonewall Honor Book * A Time Magazine Best YA Book of All Time

"A book for warriors, divas, artists, queens, individuals, activists, trend setters, and anyone searching for the courage to be themselves."--Mackenzi Lee, New York Times bestselling author of The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

It's 1989 in New York City, and for three teens, the world is changing.

Reza is an Iranian boy who has just moved to the city with his mother to live with his stepfather and stepbrother. He's terrified that someone will guess the truth he can barely acknowledge about himself. Reza knows he's gay, but all he knows of gay life are the media's images of men dying of AIDS.

Judy is an aspiring fashion designer who worships her uncle Stephen, a gay man with AIDS who devotes his time to activism as a member of ACT UP. Judy has never imagined finding romance...until she falls for Reza and they start dating.

Art is Judy's best friend, their school's only out and proud teen. He'll never be who his conservative parents want him to be, so he rebels by documenting the AIDS crisis through his photographs.

As Reza and Art grow closer, Reza struggles to find a way out of his deception that won't break Judy's heart--and destroy the most meaningful friendship he's ever known.

This is a bighearted, sprawling epic about friendship and love and the revolutionary act of living life to the fullest in the face of impossible odds.

The Walk-In Closet, Abdi Nazemian's debut novel, earned the Lambda Literary Award for Best Debut. He has written four films, including The Silence, Gorgeous Girl, and Celeste in the City, which have all been produced. Abdi is the head of development for Water's End Productions and a Sundance Writer's Lab alumnus. He has also served as a mentor at the Outfest Screenwriter's Lab, taught screenplay at UCLA Extension, and is a Sundance Writer's Lab alumnus. He graduated from Columbia University with a BA and UCLA Anderson School of Management with an MBA. He and his partner, as well as their two children, live in Los Angeles. AbDaddy.com is where you can find him online.