In modern-day London, inexperienced teenager Isaac loses his virginity through a dating app - a disappointing yet addictive experience. Overwhelmed by his A-Level exams and uncertain future, he spends his last summer before university escaping into a dizzying new world of casual sex with forgettable men. Until he meets twenty-eight-year-old Harrison at a party.
Isaac is immediately infatuated by the handsome, charismatic artist, but as they grow closer, his sense of self becomes increasingly hazy. Harrison's demands shift constantly, and while Isaac tries everything to prove his worthiness, jeopardising his relationships with his mother and his best friend in the process, he must ask himself: is he complicit in his own suffering? Is Harrison the reason he has lost himself, or did he even know who he was to begin with?
A powerful coming-of-age story for our times, Isaac interrogates masculinity and queerness in the digital age and offers a fresh take on desire and intimacy, adolescent obsession and dangerous first love. Perfect for fans of Outline Of My Lover by Douglas Martin, What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell and 100 Boyfriends by Brontez Purnell.
'Explores the vulnerability of growing up as a modern gay man, and the thrilling tensions of power, desire and shame in queer relationships. Isaac thinks sensitively about masculinity, its potential for softness, beauty, and brutality. Scenes from this novel have lingered in my mind for months after reading it' - Lily Lindon, author of Double Booked and My Own Worst Enemy