We Burned So Bright
by TJ Klune
Pan Macmillan
Now in their seventies, Don and Rodney have been partners for 40 years and experienced the highs of love and family. They have also experienced lows that have been so low; they didn’t know how they managed to keep living.
Now, they don’t have to worry about how their lives are going to end, because it has been announced that the world is headed towards the once in a trillion chance of being consumed by a black hole.
All over the world, people are making decisions on what they need to do in the next thirty days … give or take. Don and Rodney have unfinished business that they have been putting off, and they are running out of time.
The black hole coming towards Earth is expected to cause tidal waves of fire that no amount of wealth or privilege, or how good a person was in their lifetime would matter in the end.
So Don and Rodney pack up their rusty old RV and leave behind a lifetime of trinkets and memories for one last adventure before everything ends. They need to travel from their home in Maine to Washington to fulfil a promise they made to themselves a long time ago.
As the countdown to annihilation ticks away, they meet an assortment of people on their road trip who have very different ways of facing the pending doom. While many cities were are in lockdown, Don and Rodney listened to Chopin as they drove their van along the back roads.
They meet people who want to prove everyone wrong and survive, and people who think that taking control, and their own lives, will be a way of avoiding pain. While there is rioting and looting, there is also endless partying and impromptu weddings.
Along the way, there are also quiet times where the pair share stories around a camp fire. They recount LGBT histories with young people who would never know what it was like to grow old.
Another soul-searching novel from queer writer TJ Klune who believes it’s important – now more than ever – to have accurate, positive queer representation in stories.
Lezly Herbert
