Such Times

Christopher Coe was a contemporary and friend of authors like Amy Hempel and Lynne Tillman, and a student of Gordon Lish. Such Times is his masterpiece; perhaps the defining novel of the AIDS era and a foundational work of gay literature. First published in 1993 shortly before his death, it has long been out of print and passed around like a secret handshake, and his cult following is now ready to break out into the open.

“Gives voice to the dreams and terrors of an entire generation.”
—THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

“The novel of the decade. Treasure it.”
—THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

“The gay novel of the decade.”
—PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY

“Wrenching ... powerfully effective.”
—SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

“Perhaps the great novel of the AIDS epidemic.”
—DAVID LEAVITT

“A fresh classic from the most elegant pen on the planet.”
—PAUL RUDNICK

In this hypnotically beautiful, haunting novel, Christopher Coe evokes a lost world of gay pleasure and privilege in the 1970s and early 80s, juxtaposed with the tragic years of loss afterwards. Over the course of Jasper and Timothy’s twenty-year relationship, Coe crafts a deeply moving work that elegantly, indelibly evokes a lost paradise and its tragic fall.

Archway Editions spent years tracking down the rights and researching his life; this volume will also feature never-before-seen photographs and testimony from those who knew him - far more than a reissue, this is a celebration of a life and of an unjustly forgotten writer.

As the original description read, “Coe creates an inexpressibly moving portrait of people living on the razor’s edge of desire, from the bathhouses of San Francisco to the waterfronts of New York and the streets of Paris, and offers a rapturous, bittersweet homage to those who now face death for having lived so exuberantly in such times.”