Against the backdrop of a looming military coup in the fall of 1980, Casey Adair arrives in Madrid from the United States to work in the theatre. He is quickly thrust into a world of protest and resistance by his radical roommate, Gustavo. At the same time, Casey befriends Octavio, a prostitute who encourages Casey’s sexual awakening in startling ways. When his relationship with his college friend Penelope (aka “Poppy”) is upended the evening of John Lennon’s murder, Casey faces a crisis that seems impossible to resolve.

Three years later, Casey finds himself teaching in Boston, where his career is complicated by his sexuality and the specter of AIDS. Using what he learned from Gustavo about protest and resistance in Madrid, Casey becomes an AIDS activist. He struggles to understand how his many roles – friend, teacher, caretaker, dissident, lover – can co-exist. His story might be specific, but the questions he faces are ones we all must address: “What is our universe of responsibility in a world that asks so much of us?” and “How far does love commit us to give of ourselves?”

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PRAISE

“BEAUTIFUL and expansive. The Book of Casey Adair captures the tumult of the early 1980s, which set the stage for a new brand of queer activism. The way Ken Harvey tells Casey’s story gives the novel a bracing tenderness. I loved this book, and it will stay with me for a long time.”

—Jake Wolff, author of The History of Living Forever

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“AN ENGAGING, complex portrait of a young gay Everyman in search of himself, Casey Adair is a warm, intelligent, sympathetic companion even as he’s making mistakes many readers, gay and straight alike, will doubtless recognize from their own lives. The novel’s striking intimacy often made me feel I was eavesdropping on an actual life as it was lived moment by bewildering moment. I was grateful to have the opportunity to accompany Casey for a while on his bittersweet but illuminating journey through a landscape where personal and political choices, increasingly shadowed by the AIDS epidemic, often collide. There are no easy answers here, only life.”

—Paul Russell, author of The Coming Storm

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“THIS EPISTOLARY account of those times rings true in so many ways that the framework of letters will leave you wondering just how much—or how little—has been fictionalized… This is quite simply a marvelous book.”

— Jeffrey Round, Lambda-winning author of the Dan Sharp PI Mystery Series

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 “...A COLORFUL, eventful, vividly written yet bittersweet whirlwind of emotional conflict, intensive introspection, and the kind of self-analysis many readers will easily relate to…"”  

— Jim Piechota, Bay Area Reporter

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“Land(s) AN EMOTIONAL WALLOP …Adair says early on that he was erratic about keeping journals but with luck there are ones, and letters, that will take another volume into the '90s and beyond. There is a realism about The Book of Casey Adair that may or may not be autobiographical for Harvey, but it is potently emotionally true.”

—Drew Rowsome, Mygaytoronto.com

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“A DEFTLY CRAFTED and emotionally revealing novel by an author with a genuine flair for narrative storytelling…”

—Midwest Book Review

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