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The Living Realm: A Novel
Not yet published
Expected 8 Sep 26“At once an unflinchingly beautiful novel about queer desire, summer days, and casual sex that is also an elegy to friendship, grief, and lovers lost. Startlingly brave and brilliantly told, I devoured each page not sure what to expect next.
The Living Realm
belongs in the firmament of great gay fiction.” —Douglas Stuart, Booker Prize–winning author of
John of John
This program is read by actor and Audie Award–winner Richard Armitage.
While cruising one evening by Teufelssee, a small glacial lake in the Grunewald forest on the edge of Berlin, a man spots a handsome stranger who bears an uncanny resemblance to his former lover. Only, Lukas died nearly thirty years ago. Yet the man cannot shake the feeling that it was really Lukas he saw. As the man spends a long, hot summer by the lake, he continues to encounter Lukas, and then other lost lovers as well. As he attempts to make sense of the strange occurrences and learns more of Teufelssee, he finds himself venturing deeper into the mystery of the forest, leading him to question not just his sanity but the nature of time itself.
Written with the lyricism and erudition that have made Jordan Tannahill an internationally celebrated playwright, The Living Realm is a moving, dreamlike novel and an elegy to the ways our lives become entangled with history, the natural world, and those we love.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
This program is read by actor and Audie Award–winner Richard Armitage.
While cruising one evening by Teufelssee, a small glacial lake in the Grunewald forest on the edge of Berlin, a man spots a handsome stranger who bears an uncanny resemblance to his former lover. Only, Lukas died nearly thirty years ago. Yet the man cannot shake the feeling that it was really Lukas he saw. As the man spends a long, hot summer by the lake, he continues to encounter Lukas, and then other lost lovers as well. As he attempts to make sense of the strange occurrences and learns more of Teufelssee, he finds himself venturing deeper into the mystery of the forest, leading him to question not just his sanity but the nature of time itself.
Written with the lyricism and erudition that have made Jordan Tannahill an internationally celebrated playwright, The Living Realm is a moving, dreamlike novel and an elegy to the ways our lives become entangled with history, the natural world, and those we love.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Audible Audio
Expected publication September 8, 2026
About the author
Jordan Tannahill
25 books166 followersJordan Tannahill is a Canadian novelist and playwright based in London.
His debut novel, Liminal, won France's 2021 Prix des Jeunes Libraires. His second novel, The Listeners, was a Canadian bestseller, and was shortlisted for the 2021 Giller Prize.
Tannahill is the author of several plays, and the book of essays, Theatre of the Unimpressed.
In 2019, CBC Arts named Tannahill as one of sixty-nine LGBTQ Canadians, living or deceased, who has shaped the country's history.
His debut novel, Liminal, won France's 2021 Prix des Jeunes Libraires. His second novel, The Listeners, was a Canadian bestseller, and was shortlisted for the 2021 Giller Prize.
Tannahill is the author of several plays, and the book of essays, Theatre of the Unimpressed.
In 2019, CBC Arts named Tannahill as one of sixty-nine LGBTQ Canadians, living or deceased, who has shaped the country's history.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
wow so good and so moving
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August 5, 2026We spend a great deal of time wondering how to live queerly, and the archive is full of texts on queering both bios (social life) and zoe (biological life), if I'm to wax philosophical. Seldom do we encounter texts on how to die queerly, or texts that queer death. Tannahill has managed to write one such novel, and it is magnificent. One scene, in particular, has stayed with me: the protagonist goes into the lakeside woods and has sex with a tree, opening the gates of bodily perception to a vision of a world beyond the human imagined as an autonomous, individual subject. Queer death in Tannahill's novel is nothing but another form of relationality with the more-than-human - a radical reimagining and reconceptualization of what is currently the dominant image of thought. Marvelous novel.
Companions in thinking: Routledge International Handbook of Queer Death Studies and Vibrant Death: A Posthuman Phenomenology of Mourning.
Companions in thinking: Routledge International Handbook of Queer Death Studies and Vibrant Death: A Posthuman Phenomenology of Mourning.
June 18, 2026
The narrator of this novella is an archaeologist living in Berlin. He and his friends Gabor and Birgit spend a lot of time at Grunewald forest, relaxing, swimming, and cruising. The narrator begins seeing his dead lovers in the forest, which he finds puzzling and his friends grow increasingly concerned about.
I appreciated this meditation on life, death, caretaking, and friendship. This novella casts a spell: while reading, I was completely immersed in it, but when I put it down it felt like a dream I’d had. This is not a criticism. I found this read deeply moving, and it prompted reflection on what makes a life meaningful. Highly recommended.
Thank you to NetGalley and FSG for allowing me to read an ARC of this title.
I appreciated this meditation on life, death, caretaking, and friendship. This novella casts a spell: while reading, I was completely immersed in it, but when I put it down it felt like a dream I’d had. This is not a criticism. I found this read deeply moving, and it prompted reflection on what makes a life meaningful. Highly recommended.
Thank you to NetGalley and FSG for allowing me to read an ARC of this title.
August 26, 2026
HOLY SHIT
June 16, 2026
“There was something beyond joy or idle leisure, something closer to worship, in that kind of bearing witness, in observing the ways time played upon nature, and the bodies of others.”
June 19, 2026
Thank you for the ARC Net Galley
Some books entertain you for a few days. The Living Realm lingers in your bloodstream long after the final page. It captures the unbearable tenderness of being human, how people drift into our lives, alter us quietly, and remain there even after they’re gone. Every relationship in this book feels ephemeral, almost fragile enough to break at the touch, yet it argues that these fleeting connections are the closest thing we have to immortality.
Reading it felt like standing in the middle of grief, love, memory, and hope all at once. Rarely does a book make life itself feel this sacred. If summer gives you space for only one story, make it The Living Realm.
Some books entertain you for a few days. The Living Realm lingers in your bloodstream long after the final page. It captures the unbearable tenderness of being human, how people drift into our lives, alter us quietly, and remain there even after they’re gone. Every relationship in this book feels ephemeral, almost fragile enough to break at the touch, yet it argues that these fleeting connections are the closest thing we have to immortality.
Reading it felt like standing in the middle of grief, love, memory, and hope all at once. Rarely does a book make life itself feel this sacred. If summer gives you space for only one story, make it The Living Realm.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Have you ever been to a place where the veil was thin? Moreover, have you ever cruised there?
The Living Realm is narrated by a British expat who has lived in Berlin for three decades. He spends much time with his friends Birgit and Gabor at Teufelssee, a nudist lake on the outskirts. Surrounding is the Grunwald forest, an ancient natural site which doubles as a cruising ground. In his later years, the narrator is shocked to encounter a dead ringer for his former lover who died in the 90s. A later encounter with another deceased flame proves that there is in fact something supernatural happening at the lake, and Tannahill explores the queerness of the connection between the living and the dead.
The first thing to note is that Tannahill is an excellent writer. The novel is rendered in beautiful prose that never felt overwritten, and was a pleasure to read. It was also a good example of a narrator’s voice being removed from reality in a way that worked. His manner of speaking to himself is romantic and literary, which suits his character’s academic pursuits and the overall surreal atmosphere of the book. This is balanced by a sense of reality rooted in reference to real places, events and things that works alongside it.
Despite the supernatural theme, serious topics arise, the most notable being death and grief, but also the AIDS epidemic. The novel is predominantly set in the present day, with attitudes to HIV having changed massively and significant time having passed since it was a death sentence. This is reflected in the way it is presented in the novel: it remains a spectre hanging over the older queer generations, much like the more literal ghosts that appear. The Living Realm reminded me most strongly of The Beauty of Men by Andrew Holleran, another book evoking water in relation to cruising and AIDS grief, so much so that I wonder if it was an inspiration for Tannahill.
On a personal level, the novel gets an accolade from me for having a lesbian side character who wasn’t a flat stereotype. I’m tired of reading this kind of character, especially from gay men, who should be in solidarity with us instead of painting us as man-hating and unsympathetic to their struggles—the reality is that lesbians reached out during AIDS when no one else would. In this novel, I adored Birgit, the narrator’s best friend since he arrived in Berlin. Throughout his time there, they hold each other up, enduring the difficulties of grief and loneliness.
My only hangup with this book was that the length was perhaps too short to explore in depth some of the characters that the narrator encounters at the lake. More attention is given to Lukas, his first lover, than some of the other characters, and while Lukas was engaging in himself, it would’ve been interesting to hear as much detail about some of the others. I didn’t have a problem with the fragmentary nature of the memories, though, as that suited the flow of real remembrance, especially when driven so strongly by location.
Overall, I enjoyed this novel. It’s a fascinating way of exploring grief, and a literary take on a supernatural theme that often arises in novels that deal with AIDS. I’m not familiar with Tannahill’s work as a playwright, but I’m certainly interested now in exploring his other works.
Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
The Living Realm is narrated by a British expat who has lived in Berlin for three decades. He spends much time with his friends Birgit and Gabor at Teufelssee, a nudist lake on the outskirts. Surrounding is the Grunwald forest, an ancient natural site which doubles as a cruising ground. In his later years, the narrator is shocked to encounter a dead ringer for his former lover who died in the 90s. A later encounter with another deceased flame proves that there is in fact something supernatural happening at the lake, and Tannahill explores the queerness of the connection between the living and the dead.
The first thing to note is that Tannahill is an excellent writer. The novel is rendered in beautiful prose that never felt overwritten, and was a pleasure to read. It was also a good example of a narrator’s voice being removed from reality in a way that worked. His manner of speaking to himself is romantic and literary, which suits his character’s academic pursuits and the overall surreal atmosphere of the book. This is balanced by a sense of reality rooted in reference to real places, events and things that works alongside it.
Despite the supernatural theme, serious topics arise, the most notable being death and grief, but also the AIDS epidemic. The novel is predominantly set in the present day, with attitudes to HIV having changed massively and significant time having passed since it was a death sentence. This is reflected in the way it is presented in the novel: it remains a spectre hanging over the older queer generations, much like the more literal ghosts that appear. The Living Realm reminded me most strongly of The Beauty of Men by Andrew Holleran, another book evoking water in relation to cruising and AIDS grief, so much so that I wonder if it was an inspiration for Tannahill.
On a personal level, the novel gets an accolade from me for having a lesbian side character who wasn’t a flat stereotype. I’m tired of reading this kind of character, especially from gay men, who should be in solidarity with us instead of painting us as man-hating and unsympathetic to their struggles—the reality is that lesbians reached out during AIDS when no one else would. In this novel, I adored Birgit, the narrator’s best friend since he arrived in Berlin. Throughout his time there, they hold each other up, enduring the difficulties of grief and loneliness.
My only hangup with this book was that the length was perhaps too short to explore in depth some of the characters that the narrator encounters at the lake. More attention is given to Lukas, his first lover, than some of the other characters, and while Lukas was engaging in himself, it would’ve been interesting to hear as much detail about some of the others. I didn’t have a problem with the fragmentary nature of the memories, though, as that suited the flow of real remembrance, especially when driven so strongly by location.
Overall, I enjoyed this novel. It’s a fascinating way of exploring grief, and a literary take on a supernatural theme that often arises in novels that deal with AIDS. I’m not familiar with Tannahill’s work as a playwright, but I’m certainly interested now in exploring his other works.
Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
There’s something so effortless about the way this book moves between reality, memory, and something almost supernatural. You’re never completely sure where one ends and another begins, but after a while I stopped feeling like I needed to know. The writing is lyrical without ever feeling like it’s trying too hard to be beautiful, and there’s this constant eeriness underneath everything that somehow also feels incredibly intimate. The past can suddenly exist beside the present, the dead beside the living, and even when you’re questioning what is actually happening, there is still something emotionally truthful about all of it.
But what stayed with me most was everything the book carries about queer life and queer history. There’s grief, love, sex, friendship, loneliness, discrimination, misrepresentation, and even the disagreements and fractures that can exist within the community itself. It made me think about all the fights that came before us and everything people had to live through for us to exist in the world we do now. Another thing I loved is that the book never turns that history into one long tragedy or tries to force sadness out of you, sometimes it’s sad simply because it’s a fact. People died, people were left behind, people survived when the people they loved didn’t and then somehow they had to continue living, loving, having sex, making friends, growing older and building lives around those absences.
There’s also something beautiful about the way the novel treats the people we lose as never being completely gone. They remain in memory, in places, in the people who knew them and in the lives that continued after theirs ended. The lake and the forest become almost their own living presence in the story, holding different people, different generations and different versions of the same place at once. I think that’s why the uncertainty worked so well for me.
I understood what the book was reaching towards the end more than I understood exactly what was happening while I was experiencing it, and I wish I had been able to connect with those final moments as naturally as I did with everything that came before. Still, there’s so much here that I loved. It’s strange, intimate, sometimes uncomfortable, unexpectedly funny, and deeply aware of the history it carries. More than anything, it feels like a book about what it means to have lived, to have lost people along the way, and to still find yourself here surrounded by everything and everyone that helped make you who you are.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
4.25⭐️
But what stayed with me most was everything the book carries about queer life and queer history. There’s grief, love, sex, friendship, loneliness, discrimination, misrepresentation, and even the disagreements and fractures that can exist within the community itself. It made me think about all the fights that came before us and everything people had to live through for us to exist in the world we do now. Another thing I loved is that the book never turns that history into one long tragedy or tries to force sadness out of you, sometimes it’s sad simply because it’s a fact. People died, people were left behind, people survived when the people they loved didn’t and then somehow they had to continue living, loving, having sex, making friends, growing older and building lives around those absences.
There’s also something beautiful about the way the novel treats the people we lose as never being completely gone. They remain in memory, in places, in the people who knew them and in the lives that continued after theirs ended. The lake and the forest become almost their own living presence in the story, holding different people, different generations and different versions of the same place at once. I think that’s why the uncertainty worked so well for me.
I understood what the book was reaching towards the end more than I understood exactly what was happening while I was experiencing it, and I wish I had been able to connect with those final moments as naturally as I did with everything that came before. Still, there’s so much here that I loved. It’s strange, intimate, sometimes uncomfortable, unexpectedly funny, and deeply aware of the history it carries. More than anything, it feels like a book about what it means to have lived, to have lost people along the way, and to still find yourself here surrounded by everything and everyone that helped make you who you are.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
4.25⭐️
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I requested and received an eARC of
The Living Realm
by Jordan Tannahill via NetGalley. While cruising one evening near a small glacial lake on the edge of Berlin, a man spots a handsome stranger who looks identical to his former lover. Except Luka died nearly thirty years ago. Yet the man cannot shake the feeling that it was really Lukas that he saw. As the man spends a long, hot summer by the lake, he continues to encounter Lukas and the ghosts of other lovers that he's lost as well. As he attempts to make sense of what he is seeing, he finds himself venturing deeper into the mystery of the forest and his memories.
The Living Realm is a strangely ethereal novel that packs an emotional wallop. It’s not the sort of book that you pick up for the story, which is in fact terribly interesting, but rather the experience. The narrator really pulls you into his world through Tannahill’s richly evocative prose and allows you to live the story instead of simply reading it. At the heart of the narrative is our protagonist, an archaeologist who is living in Berlin. We follow his blossoming relationship with Lukas, and the intensity of his desire for the other man is an almost tangible thing. The story weaves through the past and the present as the narrator draws upon his memories of Lukas and other lovers. At first, I found this rather disorienting, but once I’d gotten into the groove of the story it felt natural and served a thematic purpose.
Tannahill’s novel asks us to consider many things, all at once. This is a deeply queer story, populated by queer ghosts and with cruising grounds as the set dressing. The narrator struggles as thinks about the ways he’s failed past lovers and this tension is beautifully blended into musings about man’s relationship to nature. The author wonderfully captures these brilliant descriptions that allow nature to become its own character in the story. The ending of The Living Realm was moving in a spiritual way and the novel leaves a very strong impression on the reader. It’s a slim, but impactful volume that is bursting with lyricism as the narrator ponders desire, sex, grief, and the earth itself.
The Living Realm is a strangely ethereal novel that packs an emotional wallop. It’s not the sort of book that you pick up for the story, which is in fact terribly interesting, but rather the experience. The narrator really pulls you into his world through Tannahill’s richly evocative prose and allows you to live the story instead of simply reading it. At the heart of the narrative is our protagonist, an archaeologist who is living in Berlin. We follow his blossoming relationship with Lukas, and the intensity of his desire for the other man is an almost tangible thing. The story weaves through the past and the present as the narrator draws upon his memories of Lukas and other lovers. At first, I found this rather disorienting, but once I’d gotten into the groove of the story it felt natural and served a thematic purpose.
Tannahill’s novel asks us to consider many things, all at once. This is a deeply queer story, populated by queer ghosts and with cruising grounds as the set dressing. The narrator struggles as thinks about the ways he’s failed past lovers and this tension is beautifully blended into musings about man’s relationship to nature. The author wonderfully captures these brilliant descriptions that allow nature to become its own character in the story. The ending of The Living Realm was moving in a spiritual way and the novel leaves a very strong impression on the reader. It’s a slim, but impactful volume that is bursting with lyricism as the narrator ponders desire, sex, grief, and the earth itself.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
“The Living Realm” starts with an impossible sighting: a man sees a former lover who died decades ago. As the summer unfolds beside a lake on the edge of Berlin and the boundaries between past and present become increasingly uncertain, the novel explores love, life and loss.
This book is wonderful.
It's strange, occasionally quite explicit and not remotely interested in explaining itself too much. That adds to its charm. I found myself completely absorbed. What stayed with me most was the writing. I've been trying to work out what makes it so beautiful but haven't quite succeeded. The prose feels both effortless and carefully crafted. It moves between the everyday and the extraordinary with such confidence that even the surreal moments feel emotionally true. There were passages I replayed simply because I wanted to spend more time with them.
It's a meditation on grief, desire, friendship, ageing and the traces people leave behind in our lives. It captures something that is difficult to articulate: that the people we have loved don't necessarily disappear simply because time has passed. The result is both melancholy and strangely life-affirming. It also felt oddly familiar. Despite the unusual direction the story takes, it was a bit like catching up with old friends – at times comfortable, at times uncomfortable, quite intimate and occasionally surprising.
The audiobook is an absolute treat. I love Richard Armitage's voice at the best of times, but paired with Tannahill's writing it feels like a perfect match. He narrates with warmth and restraint, allowing the prose to shine while giving the story exactly the emotional weight it needs.
Thank you to Macmillan Audio, NetGalley and Jordan Tannahill for an advance listening copy of this book.
This book is wonderful.
It's strange, occasionally quite explicit and not remotely interested in explaining itself too much. That adds to its charm. I found myself completely absorbed. What stayed with me most was the writing. I've been trying to work out what makes it so beautiful but haven't quite succeeded. The prose feels both effortless and carefully crafted. It moves between the everyday and the extraordinary with such confidence that even the surreal moments feel emotionally true. There were passages I replayed simply because I wanted to spend more time with them.
It's a meditation on grief, desire, friendship, ageing and the traces people leave behind in our lives. It captures something that is difficult to articulate: that the people we have loved don't necessarily disappear simply because time has passed. The result is both melancholy and strangely life-affirming. It also felt oddly familiar. Despite the unusual direction the story takes, it was a bit like catching up with old friends – at times comfortable, at times uncomfortable, quite intimate and occasionally surprising.
The audiobook is an absolute treat. I love Richard Armitage's voice at the best of times, but paired with Tannahill's writing it feels like a perfect match. He narrates with warmth and restraint, allowing the prose to shine while giving the story exactly the emotional weight it needs.
Thank you to Macmillan Audio, NetGalley and Jordan Tannahill for an advance listening copy of this book.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
A slight though potent novel, my favorite kind. Composed of crystal clear writing, The Living Realm is immediately compelling and sensual, full to the brim of equal parts beauty and melancholy.
Our protagonist spends a drought-stricken summer in Berlin's Grunewald forest. The lazy sun soaked days stretch out before him, full of swimming in the lake, sunbathing with his friends, and hitting the local cruising grove. But as the heat intensifies and the summer progresses, he begins seeing several of his former lovers (all now dead) in and around the wooded lake.
It feels glib to call this novel “beautiful” the way it feels flippant to call a parent’s death family “sad. The writing is atmospheric, evocative, and profound all at once. It feels too big for such a trivial adjective. While reading I felt I was in the Grunewald, I could smell the sunbaked forest and feel the cold spots of deep lake water. Paired with shimmering prose, the character work is also remarkably strong. By the end I came to care for these people who felt more like real acquaintances than like fictional creations. I tore through this book and immediately wished I could read it again for the first time, this is one of those novels.
The Living Realm is a love letter to human connection and to life in its countless forms. A book about how relationships, fragile and transitory though they seem, might also be the most powerful thing we have, how they can transcend space, time, even death. If you read one book this summer, read this one.
Our protagonist spends a drought-stricken summer in Berlin's Grunewald forest. The lazy sun soaked days stretch out before him, full of swimming in the lake, sunbathing with his friends, and hitting the local cruising grove. But as the heat intensifies and the summer progresses, he begins seeing several of his former lovers (all now dead) in and around the wooded lake.
It feels glib to call this novel “beautiful” the way it feels flippant to call a parent’s death family “sad. The writing is atmospheric, evocative, and profound all at once. It feels too big for such a trivial adjective. While reading I felt I was in the Grunewald, I could smell the sunbaked forest and feel the cold spots of deep lake water. Paired with shimmering prose, the character work is also remarkably strong. By the end I came to care for these people who felt more like real acquaintances than like fictional creations. I tore through this book and immediately wished I could read it again for the first time, this is one of those novels.
The Living Realm is a love letter to human connection and to life in its countless forms. A book about how relationships, fragile and transitory though they seem, might also be the most powerful thing we have, how they can transcend space, time, even death. If you read one book this summer, read this one.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
THE LIVING REALM by Jordan Tannahill is a remarkably singular novel - slight in size, but strangely vast in effect. It looks like something you could move through quickly, but it doesn’t behave that way at all. It slows you down, pulls you back, and makes you reread without really asking permission.
Tannahill’s prose is stunning. It has this fluid, almost breath-like quality, where meaning keeps shifting just slightly as you move through it. I kept finding myself stopping mid-paragraph - not because I was lost, but because I didn’t want to miss what was happening in the language itself. And then I’d go back and read it again anyway.
It becomes less about “following” a story and more about staying inside a particular way of seeing and feeling. At times it feels like a series of interconnected poems - alive, restless, full of movement and light. It’s the kind of book where reading slowly isn’t just better, it feels necessary.
There’s also a real sense of mystery running through it. I don’t think I understood everything it’s doing, and I’m not sure I’m supposed to. It feels intentionally open, like it’s more interested in experience than explanation.
This is not a book you finish and move on from. It’s one you drift through, return to, and let stay with you longer than you expect.
Tannahill’s prose is stunning. It has this fluid, almost breath-like quality, where meaning keeps shifting just slightly as you move through it. I kept finding myself stopping mid-paragraph - not because I was lost, but because I didn’t want to miss what was happening in the language itself. And then I’d go back and read it again anyway.
It becomes less about “following” a story and more about staying inside a particular way of seeing and feeling. At times it feels like a series of interconnected poems - alive, restless, full of movement and light. It’s the kind of book where reading slowly isn’t just better, it feels necessary.
There’s also a real sense of mystery running through it. I don’t think I understood everything it’s doing, and I’m not sure I’m supposed to. It feels intentionally open, like it’s more interested in experience than explanation.
This is not a book you finish and move on from. It’s one you drift through, return to, and let stay with you longer than you expect.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Not an easy book to rate but the writing is excellent and for some people this will be a very good read.
In full
There's a small glacial lake called the Teufelssee close to Berlin. One evening a man is cruising there area as he has done many times before. In among the trees he spots a handsome stranger who is incredibly like Lukas, an old lover of his. However Lukas died some 30 year ago. In reflecting on his past life with Lukas and other events often around the Teufelssee (a well known cruising area) it leads him to reflections on love, friendship and his life more generally. Sometimes he is on his own and sometimes with his long standing friends Birgit & Gabor.
There is quite a lot off information about the Teufelssee and Berlin history that seems very well researched and I found it made for interesting reading. However the real story here is the contemplation of the past and the awareness that the future for an individual is finite. For me this is deep and the writing is frequently lovely. There is real poetry in both the Teufelssee and the events that take place there. Brigit and Gabor are good characters and this had a feel of a personal and believable memoir for me.
I enjoyed the way the book started in a period of considerable drought. This had the effect of making what is generally unseen seen - that was well done. The "hunger stones" become visible in rivers with the legend "If you see me, then weep". This set the tone for that consideration of the past and future; of love, ageing and loneliness and it goes deep. Did I find the end a little strange? Yes however it certainly didn't feel wrong. I think this is quite an unusual book however I'm sure many will enjoy it. Worth noting that this book makes a bit more than reference to gay sex which I guess will limit the audience a little.
My thanks to the author and the publisher for an advance copy of this book
In full
There's a small glacial lake called the Teufelssee close to Berlin. One evening a man is cruising there area as he has done many times before. In among the trees he spots a handsome stranger who is incredibly like Lukas, an old lover of his. However Lukas died some 30 year ago. In reflecting on his past life with Lukas and other events often around the Teufelssee (a well known cruising area) it leads him to reflections on love, friendship and his life more generally. Sometimes he is on his own and sometimes with his long standing friends Birgit & Gabor.
There is quite a lot off information about the Teufelssee and Berlin history that seems very well researched and I found it made for interesting reading. However the real story here is the contemplation of the past and the awareness that the future for an individual is finite. For me this is deep and the writing is frequently lovely. There is real poetry in both the Teufelssee and the events that take place there. Brigit and Gabor are good characters and this had a feel of a personal and believable memoir for me.
I enjoyed the way the book started in a period of considerable drought. This had the effect of making what is generally unseen seen - that was well done. The "hunger stones" become visible in rivers with the legend "If you see me, then weep". This set the tone for that consideration of the past and future; of love, ageing and loneliness and it goes deep. Did I find the end a little strange? Yes however it certainly didn't feel wrong. I think this is quite an unusual book however I'm sure many will enjoy it. Worth noting that this book makes a bit more than reference to gay sex which I guess will limit the audience a little.
My thanks to the author and the publisher for an advance copy of this book
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This is the book that I didn't know I needed in this hot weather. I was hooked from the first sentence.
"It had been Europe's worst drought in twenty generations, but Teufelssee did not lose its water."
"Even if humans lived another million years, they would never create anything so beautiful as Europe."
It is queer, European, cruisy in a naturalist kind of way and I loved how relaxed it made me feel despite the mystical turn in the second half. I see that many people compare this with the movie 'All of Us Strangers' because of this change, but I think this misrepresents a novel that manages to be philosophical without being traumatic, that tries to find meaning for a community that is usually reduced to sex.
"I think a part of me was drawn to cruising for very much the same reasons other men loved to fish, less so for the catch itself than for the discrete rewards of patience, for the many long minutes of waiting spent in stillness, feeling time dissolve into place."
I don't think that all the choices it makes are the right ones, but the praise is deserved.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy.
"It had been Europe's worst drought in twenty generations, but Teufelssee did not lose its water."
"Even if humans lived another million years, they would never create anything so beautiful as Europe."
It is queer, European, cruisy in a naturalist kind of way and I loved how relaxed it made me feel despite the mystical turn in the second half. I see that many people compare this with the movie 'All of Us Strangers' because of this change, but I think this misrepresents a novel that manages to be philosophical without being traumatic, that tries to find meaning for a community that is usually reduced to sex.
"I think a part of me was drawn to cruising for very much the same reasons other men loved to fish, less so for the catch itself than for the discrete rewards of patience, for the many long minutes of waiting spent in stillness, feeling time dissolve into place."
I don't think that all the choices it makes are the right ones, but the praise is deserved.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
ARC via netgalley.
Really lovely read. I'm always fascinated with the idea time passing and slipping through my fingers and the inevitable arrival of death. These thoughts linger through this entire (short) novel. Beautiful writing from Tannahill throughout and lots of small content overlaps with one of this plays that I saw. I appreciated that it felt like a work that was distinctly Tannahill from what I know of him and his work.
Making the narrator an archeologist naturally serves to further this exploration into the theme of time and decay through the ages. The fossils in the earth. This cruising ground and lake that has stayed the same while the rest of Berlin has changed around it. Beautiful though provoking stuff.
On one hand I appreciated the short length and would not want it to be any longer. On the other hand it felt like a full novel may have had an even greater emotional impact so not sure where I land on that while usually as a rule I advocate for things to be shorter rather than longer...
A nice summer read to enjoy near a lake or your local cruising spot.
Really lovely read. I'm always fascinated with the idea time passing and slipping through my fingers and the inevitable arrival of death. These thoughts linger through this entire (short) novel. Beautiful writing from Tannahill throughout and lots of small content overlaps with one of this plays that I saw. I appreciated that it felt like a work that was distinctly Tannahill from what I know of him and his work.
Making the narrator an archeologist naturally serves to further this exploration into the theme of time and decay through the ages. The fossils in the earth. This cruising ground and lake that has stayed the same while the rest of Berlin has changed around it. Beautiful though provoking stuff.
On one hand I appreciated the short length and would not want it to be any longer. On the other hand it felt like a full novel may have had an even greater emotional impact so not sure where I land on that while usually as a rule I advocate for things to be shorter rather than longer...
A nice summer read to enjoy near a lake or your local cruising spot.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Pub Date 8 Sept 2026
Thanks to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review,
I really enjoyed this book. It reminded me of the feeling I had while reading Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski. It also explores some similar themes but is not the same story at all.
I had never read Tannahill’s fiction before. I was familiar with his nonfiction edited collection, The Videofag Book, which is a wonderful resource that I use in my research. This book has definitely made me want to read more of his fiction.
The Living Realm is a slim novel exploring queer time, romance, love, sex, regret, desire, history, grief, death, and so much more. I really enjoyed the magical realism of the story, particularly because the novel remains somewhat ambiguous about whether what we are experiencing is actually magical realism, or something else entirely, which I don't want to give away. At least, that’s how I read it. That ambiguity added to the book’s atmosphere and made me think about how queer relationships to time, memory, and history can resist straightforward explanation.
Richard Armitage is a wonderful narrator!
Thanks to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review,
I really enjoyed this book. It reminded me of the feeling I had while reading Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski. It also explores some similar themes but is not the same story at all.
I had never read Tannahill’s fiction before. I was familiar with his nonfiction edited collection, The Videofag Book, which is a wonderful resource that I use in my research. This book has definitely made me want to read more of his fiction.
The Living Realm is a slim novel exploring queer time, romance, love, sex, regret, desire, history, grief, death, and so much more. I really enjoyed the magical realism of the story, particularly because the novel remains somewhat ambiguous about whether what we are experiencing is actually magical realism, or something else entirely, which I don't want to give away. At least, that’s how I read it. That ambiguity added to the book’s atmosphere and made me think about how queer relationships to time, memory, and history can resist straightforward explanation.
Richard Armitage is a wonderful narrator!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I had to sit with this one for a little bit before I considered writing a review. In the Living Realm, the MMC begins to see his dead lovers at the lake he is spending the summer by. As his friends become more and more concerned, he is comforted by the presence of his previous loves and the lives they lived together.
We get to see the process of love, grief, and death through a queer lens- how those we have loved alter our very being and stay with us. The book is sad in a quiet way- acknowledging that love and loss can be sad without being tragic. How you can celebrate a loss in a quiet and reverent way.
It’s no surprise that Tannahill is a playwright. The writing style is lyrical and descriptive in a way that you can visualize.
4.25
The Living Realm is set to be published September 8, 2026 and I received an advanced copy from Netgalley and the publishers in exchange for my review.
We get to see the process of love, grief, and death through a queer lens- how those we have loved alter our very being and stay with us. The book is sad in a quiet way- acknowledging that love and loss can be sad without being tragic. How you can celebrate a loss in a quiet and reverent way.
It’s no surprise that Tannahill is a playwright. The writing style is lyrical and descriptive in a way that you can visualize.
4.25
The Living Realm is set to be published September 8, 2026 and I received an advanced copy from Netgalley and the publishers in exchange for my review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
THE LIVING REALM will haunt me forever. I will read it again, and again, and again.
The story follows a British archaeologist who has lived in Berlin for many years, through the AIDS pandemic, and into the modern era. He visits a Berlin forest preserve frequently and, suddenly, sees his long-dead lover. Then he sees other past lovers, who are as real as he is. Are they real? Is he crazy? Is the forest magic?
Mostly, I felt the grief of young love. As a young man myself, deeply in love and building a beautiful life with a beloved partner, I felt the pain of years passing me by. Through poetic language, rich symbolism, and fully realized characters, Tannahill guided me through deep emotions that I have yet to fully feel.
This is a painful book. It hurts. And yet, I will return as my life progresses and I bring new experiences to this beautiful novella.
The story follows a British archaeologist who has lived in Berlin for many years, through the AIDS pandemic, and into the modern era. He visits a Berlin forest preserve frequently and, suddenly, sees his long-dead lover. Then he sees other past lovers, who are as real as he is. Are they real? Is he crazy? Is the forest magic?
Mostly, I felt the grief of young love. As a young man myself, deeply in love and building a beautiful life with a beloved partner, I felt the pain of years passing me by. Through poetic language, rich symbolism, and fully realized characters, Tannahill guided me through deep emotions that I have yet to fully feel.
This is a painful book. It hurts. And yet, I will return as my life progresses and I bring new experiences to this beautiful novella.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
S/O and TY to NetGalley and the publishers Farrar, Straus and Girous and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to immersive read this title by providing the eARC and the ALC.
A metaphysical exploration of one man’s life through his sexual dalliances in a liminal lakeside forest in Germany. The rumination of death and one’s life lived were thought provoking and I could relate to the main character and his nostalgic disposition while also empathizing with his struggles of lost love. Strong character development throughout and very slice of life approach to tackling deep emotional topics. Historically important. The narrator had a very calming voice.
I’d recommend this to readers who like heavy introspection, casual sexual exploration, and strongly connected friendships.
4.25/5 stars.
A metaphysical exploration of one man’s life through his sexual dalliances in a liminal lakeside forest in Germany. The rumination of death and one’s life lived were thought provoking and I could relate to the main character and his nostalgic disposition while also empathizing with his struggles of lost love. Strong character development throughout and very slice of life approach to tackling deep emotional topics. Historically important. The narrator had a very calming voice.
I’d recommend this to readers who like heavy introspection, casual sexual exploration, and strongly connected friendships.
4.25/5 stars.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The description of this reminded me of Waiting on a Friend which I really enjoyed this year. Both explore the idea of being visited by the ghosts of dead gay men, but this is much more reflective and grounded in reality.
It’s a short read about an older gay British man living in Berlin reflecting on his life as he spends the summer at Teufelssee which is both a lake and cruising ground.
It confronts how the world has changed both in terms of the boiling hot dry summer and the changing attitudes around the queer community. And it confronts what it means to come to the end of your life after so many in your community did not get to grow old with you.
The writing here is strong, the descriptions of place felt lifelike, and there are some really good moments of connection and humanity between characters. But there was something missing to tie it all together so it felt disjointed and certain elements didn’t get the exploration I was hoping for. Still a really solid book that made for a brief and enjoyable, if emotional, summer read.
It’s a short read about an older gay British man living in Berlin reflecting on his life as he spends the summer at Teufelssee which is both a lake and cruising ground.
It confronts how the world has changed both in terms of the boiling hot dry summer and the changing attitudes around the queer community. And it confronts what it means to come to the end of your life after so many in your community did not get to grow old with you.
The writing here is strong, the descriptions of place felt lifelike, and there are some really good moments of connection and humanity between characters. But there was something missing to tie it all together so it felt disjointed and certain elements didn’t get the exploration I was hoping for. Still a really solid book that made for a brief and enjoyable, if emotional, summer read.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This book reminded me so much of the recent film, "All of Us Strangers", which was similarly a queer work of art that dealt with memory, ghosts, and the lasting marks love leaves on people even when we are no longer - for lack of a better word - a part of the living realm. I enjoyed the opening so much that as the plot unfolded (and I got a sense of where it was all headed), I was somewhat disappointed. Tannahill is a gifted writer; this is additionally an amazing concept, but it falls flat when we approach the mid-to-end point, wherein I felt a bit cheated by the turn of the plot. Worth a read for the prose alone! Gorgeous.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
A beautifully written novel from the point of view of an older gay man living in Berlin who starts to see his former lovers as they were when they were with him years ago. Interesting descriptions of the cruising life in Germany, especially in a notorious and well-frequented area for easy and uncomplicated encounters. Themes of desire, love, loss, friendships, and found family. Excellent narration that communicates the sometimes tender, sometimes stressful situations.
My thanks to the author, publisher, @MacmillanAudio, and #NetGalley for early access to the audiobook of #TheLivingRealm for review purposes. Publication date: 8 September 2026.
My thanks to the author, publisher, @MacmillanAudio, and #NetGalley for early access to the audiobook of #TheLivingRealm for review purposes. Publication date: 8 September 2026.
August 14, 2026
This is a meditative study of queer grief and trauma, and the impossible task of simply continuing to live.
I love how The Living Realm never really delves into the mechanics of how the past becomes reality, instead focusing on the weight of the emotions behind it. Queer lives, especially those shaped by the turmoil of the AIDS crisis, are often depicted through the crisis itself. What we see less often is the aftermath. The weight. The grief. What is left behind when the crisis is over, but the people who survived still have to carry it.
The Living Realm is interested in that space: what it means to live with what cannot be undone, and to keep living anyway.
I love how The Living Realm never really delves into the mechanics of how the past becomes reality, instead focusing on the weight of the emotions behind it. Queer lives, especially those shaped by the turmoil of the AIDS crisis, are often depicted through the crisis itself. What we see less often is the aftermath. The weight. The grief. What is left behind when the crisis is over, but the people who survived still have to carry it.
The Living Realm is interested in that space: what it means to live with what cannot be undone, and to keep living anyway.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
A beautiful novel where a man reflects on his life, his loves, and his connection to the meadow by the densely forested lake, Teufelssee, where he's spent so much of his life. It was heartrending and thoughtful and offered up a sense of the queer lifestyle, history and community of the area.
I happened to experience this story in audiobook format as read by Richard Armitage. His voice is so deep and gorgeous that I feel it elevates the poetry within the writing as well. I highly recommend this book, but doubly so for the audio version.
I happened to experience this story in audiobook format as read by Richard Armitage. His voice is so deep and gorgeous that I feel it elevates the poetry within the writing as well. I highly recommend this book, but doubly so for the audio version.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
A short, beautiful meditation on death and loss and time, set place in a gay cruising spot on a lake in Berlin. It feels very grounded, a realistic look at coping at the end of one's life and the emotional ghosts one might encounter there. A love letter to friendship. Moments of humor and nostalgic reminiscing weave into the otherwise more emotionally heavy and philosophical narrative. If you hate a run on sentence, this one might not be for you, but I didn't mind the meandering so much within the context of the subject matter.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC :)
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC :)
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Received as a NetGalley arc in exchange for an honest review (audiobook)
The Living Realm provides a glimpse into the world of the dying, where memory and hopes for the future often overlap and obscure the realities of living. Through dead and living friends and lovers, the narrator examines his relationships and his regrets in an attempt to understand his place among the dead and who he will be to those left once he is gone. Secondary characters, such as his friends Birgit and Gabor, are complex and just as mired in the murkiness of their pasts and intertwining lives.
The Living Realm provides a glimpse into the world of the dying, where memory and hopes for the future often overlap and obscure the realities of living. Through dead and living friends and lovers, the narrator examines his relationships and his regrets in an attempt to understand his place among the dead and who he will be to those left once he is gone. Secondary characters, such as his friends Birgit and Gabor, are complex and just as mired in the murkiness of their pasts and intertwining lives.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I didn't expect so much complexity in such a short novel. The Living Realm explores sanity, sex, death, memory, queer desire, grief, friendship, and time. Everything in this novel began to bleed into one another, becoming almost dreamlike. This was such a lyrical and hypotonic piece of gay fiction, I feel speechless.
"A shiver running through me, and not from the cold. To be alive, my God, to be alive and beside this man I still loved."
Thank you netgally for the audio arc, the narration was incredible.
"A shiver running through me, and not from the cold. To be alive, my God, to be alive and beside this man I still loved."
Thank you netgally for the audio arc, the narration was incredible.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
What a beautiful novel. There are so many little moments in this book that just took my breath away. Jordan Tannahill has a way of looking at the small parts of life and magnifying it to show their significance. It made me tear up multiple times just by the sheer beauty of the writing. This book reminded me of my place in the world and my connection with everything that has come before and everything that will come.
Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for the ARC.
Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for the ARC.
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June 9, 2026The Living Realm moves through friction between humor and bodily precarity, perhaps stronger in the porousness it sustains between time and intimacy than in narrative drive—though it leaves its own afterglow. Full review available here.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This book is haunting in all the best ways -- but it isn't really a ghost story. Perhaps it's better considered as a reflection. Of what, or of whom, is perhaps a different question altogether.
Tannahill's writing is lyrical and elegant; it's full of mystery and emotion and connection.
Highly recommend.
Tannahill's writing is lyrical and elegant; it's full of mystery and emotion and connection.
Highly recommend.
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