Perth’s Queer Book Club has selected local author Holden Sheppard’s newest work as their next read.
The 2025 novel is the first adult work from Sheppard who received widespread acclaims for his young Adult novels Invisible Boys and The Brink.
Earlier this year the television adaptation of Invisible Boys made its debut on streaming service Stan and Sheppard has announced he’s working on a sequel novel Yeah the Boys.
King of Dirt is described as a gritty and heartfelt gay coming-of-age story set in the world of FIFO workers and tradies in Western Australia.
Giacomo Brolo, aka Jack, is a mess. He works piecemeal construction gigs in remote WA, drinks himself to oblivion and is estranged from his family and friends. He’s consumed by a self-loathing all too common for closeted men who have grown up in a world of hate and shame.
But then Jack returns to his regional hometown of Geraldton for a family wedding. He hasn’t been back since he fled at the age of eighteen, and his past soon catches up with him.
Turns out Jack’s deeply conservative Italian family would prefer he remained in the closet. Then he finds out he may have conceived a son with his teenage girlfriend, and now Jack needs to convince her and her new husband that he’s fit to be a father figure. And whatever happened to Xavier, the former schoolmate who Jack was in love with and whose rejection spurred him to leave Geraldton in the first place?
Is Jack doomed to live a dead-end life – or can he open himself up to the possibility of love, found family and connection?
Everyone is welcome at Queer Book Club
Perth’s Queer Book Club is an initiative of GRAI: GLBTI Rights in Ageing, and was established after years of members of Perth’s LGBTIQA+ communities expressing a desire for a book club.
Each month a different selection of people turn up to the discussion, and it’s a welcoming space where people aren’t compelled to speak if they go along.
It starts of with everyone introducing themselves and sharing their pronouns, and everyone is asked to describe the book in just one word. Then a moderator starts the discussion with a few provocations, and you can chime in with your thoughts, or just listen to what everyone else has to say.
At the end of the session everyone rates the book using a unicorn scoring system, one unicorn means you weren’t a fan, while five unicorns shows some serious love.
The meeting will be on the last Wednesday of October, the 29th from 6:00pm at Pride Piazza, 142 James Street, Northbridge. Find out more about the group at their Facebook page.
