Lone Stars: A Novel

by Justin Deabler

Overview

"Desperately affecting." —The New York Times

“Generous and epic…takes us through generations of a singular family, whose loves and losses also tell us a story about America itself." —Eliot Schrefer, National Book Award finalist, author of Endangered

Justin Deabler's Lone Stars follows the arc of four generations of a Texan family in a changing America. Julian Warner, a father at last, wrestles with a question his husband posed: what will you tell our son about the people you came from, now that they're gone? Finding the answers takes Julian back in time to Eisenhower's immigration border raids, an epistolary love affair during the Vietnam War, crumbling marriages, queer migrations to Cambridge and New York, up to the disorienting polarization of Obama's second term. And in these answers lies a hope: that by uncloseting ourselves—as immigrants, smart women, gay people—we find power in empathy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250256102
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/02/2021
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	1,009,851
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Justin Deabler grew up in Houston. He dropped out of high school when he was fifteen, went to Simon's Rock College, and graduated from Harvard Law School. He is the General Counsel for the Queens Public Library. He lives in Brooklyn with his husband, son, and two cats. Lone Stars is his first novel.

Editorial Reviews

11/09/2020

In Deabler’s bighearted debut, a gay man looks back on his family’s history to understand how his heritage and identity are woven by his home state of Texas. Julian Warner begins his story with Eisenhower’s anti-immigration border raids in the 1950s, as seen through the eyes of his mother, impressionable, young Lacy Adams. In 1969 Lacy meets Aaron Warner, a soldier serving in Vietnam, whom she later marries. They have a son, the precocious Julian, and Aaron, unable to keep a job for more than six months at a time, takes a succession of lovers. Julian comes out to Lacy after a gay high school classmate is assaulted, motivating Lacy to become a gay rights activist. Julian goes off to Harvard and later moves to Brooklyn, embarking on a legal career and a marriage, before a final reckoning with his Texas roots involves surprises from both his parents’ sides of the family. Deabler’s layered if at times chockablock story of gay rights, immigrants’ rights, and the financial crisis of 2008—Julian’s husband quits his finance job over a crisis of conscience—makes good use of the general messiness of family ties and the longing to extend one’s line into an uncertain future. In the end, this novel proudly and emotionally defines what it means to be from the Lone Star State. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"A beautiful and well-paced book worth savoring."—Portland Book Review

"A delight, sometimes a revelation... Lone Stars tells a universal story, as all good books do."—Lone Star Literary Life

"A welcome surprise... demonstrating that there are still important stories to be told about the experience of coming out."—Gay & Lesbian Review/Worldwide

“At once epic and timely, Deabler's stunning multi-generational novel is... a complicated love song to Texas, and (I'll be honest) a tear-jerker. You won't be able to set this one down.”—Diana Spechler, author of Who by Fire and Skinny

“You’ll love this uplifting novel... It’s a tale of immigration and strong women that shines with hope.”—Good Housekeeping

"This fast-moving book fully and sympathetically illuminates the varied lives of the three Texans at the heart of the story. They go through serious ups and downs, and that’s what life and good storytelling is all about."—The Vietnam Veterans of America

"At its core is about secrets, and what happens when families don't talk about the things family's 'don't talk about.'"—The Berkshire Eagle

"Deabler’s bighearted debut...proudly and emotionally defines what it means to be from the Lone Star State."—Publisher's Weekly

"A triumphant debut."—Matthew Sharpe, author of The Sleeping Father

"Enormously poignant."—Carole Maso, author of Ava

"A wonderfully humane and honest novel about a complicated modern American family. This perfectly paced story builds on secrets, betrayals and unconditional love toward a big-hearted ending that may leave you in tears."—Jim Lynch, author of Before the Wind

From the Publisher

09/01/2020

When his husband asks Julian Warner what he'll tell their son about his family, Julian recalls four generations of Texans in a story moving from Eisenhower's immigration border raids and love during the Vietnam War to gays emerging from the closet and traveling to Cambridge and New York. From the General Counsel at Queens Public Library.

Library Journal