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Guest Privileges: Queer Lives and Finding Home in the Middle East
Brought to you by Penguin.
An intimate and illuminating account of queer lives and migration, homemaking and community in the Gulf, from a brilliant new voice in narrative non-fiction
**LONGLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE**
Upon moving to the Gulf States – where penalties for queer acts include deportation, imprisonment, torture and death – Gaar Adams wants to understand why LGBTQ+ migrants might choose to live amid such peril. He begins riskily gathering interviews outside the tightly controlled state media, leading with what he thinks is a simple
Isn't it harder for you to make a life here?
But as unforgettable residents share a kaleidoscope of stories – from uproarious Filipino salon workers throwing secret drag parties to a courageous Pakistani farmhand who helps his compatriots smuggle themselves across borders – deeper questions and fault lines begin to emerge alongside the halting steps into Gaar’s own clandestine relationship.
Weaving intimate and illuminating memoir with unprecedented reportage, Guest Privileges is a decade-long journey of dislocation – not just through the Gulf States, but into the very nature of home, belonging and how we form a life and community.
'An eye-opening tour de force' ALEX ESPINOZA
'Exhilarating' SUSAN ORLEAN
'Tender and insightful' MOHAMED TONSY
2024 Gaar Adams (P)2024 Penguin Audio
An intimate and illuminating account of queer lives and migration, homemaking and community in the Gulf, from a brilliant new voice in narrative non-fiction
**LONGLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE**
Upon moving to the Gulf States – where penalties for queer acts include deportation, imprisonment, torture and death – Gaar Adams wants to understand why LGBTQ+ migrants might choose to live amid such peril. He begins riskily gathering interviews outside the tightly controlled state media, leading with what he thinks is a simple
Isn't it harder for you to make a life here?
But as unforgettable residents share a kaleidoscope of stories – from uproarious Filipino salon workers throwing secret drag parties to a courageous Pakistani farmhand who helps his compatriots smuggle themselves across borders – deeper questions and fault lines begin to emerge alongside the halting steps into Gaar’s own clandestine relationship.
Weaving intimate and illuminating memoir with unprecedented reportage, Guest Privileges is a decade-long journey of dislocation – not just through the Gulf States, but into the very nature of home, belonging and how we form a life and community.
'An eye-opening tour de force' ALEX ESPINOZA
'Exhilarating' SUSAN ORLEAN
'Tender and insightful' MOHAMED TONSY
2024 Gaar Adams (P)2024 Penguin Audio
Audible Audio
Published May 9, 2024
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