Click to enlarge
Homo Novus
Gerard Cabrera
“Gerard Cabrera weaves a compelling, and terribly human, story from the strands of sexuality, self-discovery, secrets, violations, hypocrisy, betrayal, and redemption”
—Martín Espada, Author of Floaters
$16.95
Availability: In stock (can be backordered)
Prefer another retailer? Choose your format below and you’ll be taken to the retailer’s website to complete your purchase.
Description
Sacred and Profane
Piety, Compassion, Lust, Love…
Piety, compassion, lust, love… Feelings all the more potent when you are a Catholic priest confined to your hospital bed by an AIDS diagnosis, being comforted by the seminarian you sexually abused as an adolescent. It’s Holy Week 1987. The priest is Fr. Linus Fitzgerald, and the young seminarian is Orlando Rosario. Both are shocked and shaken as they reflect on their desires and dreams, secrets and sins, hopes and faith, and the paths that brought them together. In Homo Novus, Gerard Cabrera illuminates with deep empathy and stark emotional honesty the journey these two men take separately and together – a journey that began with a violation of trust and leads them to places – sacred and profane – that they never imagined.
Praise for Homo Novus
About the Author
Gerard Cabrera’s fiction has appeared in the literary journals Acentos Review, JONATHAN, Kweli, and Apricity, and his poetry includes the chapbooks Indefeasible Coinage and The Knock-Off Artist. Other writing has appeared in Gay Community News and Gay City News. He has attended the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, The Writers Studio, and has been a Bread Loaf Camargo Foundation Fellow in Cassis, France.
Gerard earned a degree in English and American Literature at Brandeis University, his Master’s degree in Public Health from Hunter College, and his law degree from Northeastern University School of Law. He served on the board of Gay Community News, was a member of the theater troupe United Fruit Company, and competed in the 1994 Gay Games.
Over the years, Gerard helped run one of the first safe sex programs for people with mental disabilities, helped found an LGBT Puerto Rican empowerment group, and has been active in New York’s LGBT community. Past jobs include working on an Old Spice assembly line, as a convenience store clerk, as a kosher dishwasher, as a secretary, as a bank teller, as well as in nonprofits, universities, and as an attorney representing indigent people in housing court, family court, and probate court. He has also practiced health care and regulatory law, and is currently a court attorney in New York City Family Court. Gerard is a Massarican from Springfield, Massachusetts, the birthplace of Dr. Seuss, basketball, and the first American dictionary. He lives and works in New York City.
Discover More
Praise
Praise for Homo Novus
“Gerard Cabrera weaves a compelling, and terribly human, story from the strands of sexuality, self-discovery, secrets, violations, hypocrisy, betrayal, and redemption… an eloquent rejoinder to those who would dehumanize this or any community.”
“Capturing the patriarchal seduction of religion, this novel is an essential contribution to our queer Latinx literary tradition.”
“Homo Novus is a masterful, powerful work—the perfect balancing of the profane and sacred that strikes at the heart of what it is to be human. Cabrera’s lucid and startling prose pierces the heart.”
“Takes a hot issue and gives it a complex and nuanced exploration that will encourage even greater discussion.”
A potent, pensive and poignant novel… with strong imagery and dialogue as biting as a bitch-slap. Cabrera creates sexy, complex characters who lure you into the inner recesses of their psyches.”
“Wrestles with the desire of forbidden love… In lyrical and often heartbreaking prose, Cabrera weaves a story that illuminates the unanswered questions surrounding morality, faith, lust and love.”