I’m a sucker for gay literature, especially set in the 80s. Separate Rooms, republished work by the late Pier Vittorio Tondelli who sadly passed away over three decades ago of AIDS, seemed like exactly what I was looking for, especially given the connection to Italy and Europe, but I was mistaken.

The story follows Leo, who seeing his loved one slowly dying, travels placing himself in “separate rooms” - separate places, countries and times — from Thomas, having to reckon with the love that is and was. The description paints a touching story but I was left confused and (shamefully) bored. I really wanted to love this but at 20% I knew that was a pipe dream.

While this book didn’t click for me (have I mentioned yet how much I wish it did?), I’m excited to see this on the big screen — from the description of the book, I know I’ll need some tissues. Hopefully it won’t feel as disjointed and confusing as the novel, however. Thanks for NetGalley and Zando Projects for the ARC.

Had to DNF at ~20%. The prose was beautifully written, and I suppose the author delves deeper into important themes later in the novel, but neither the romance nor the plot felt engaging enough for me. Might give it a second chance in a few months.

A beautiful portrait of what life looks like when you lose a soulmate and what putting it back together can look like. Made me hopeful in a way. The romance also felt very nature.

I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to you for providing me with this arc! It's not often that translated works manage to maintain the original tone and essence of the author, but the translator has done exceptional justice to the original text with this one.

The book drips with melancholy, evoking a deep sense of emotion, and I can truly appreciate the effort that went into preserving this in the translation. While I did enjoy the more plot driven parts of the book to the philosophical parts, I found that it all worked really well in the end. I feel a deep connection to this work, and I’m sure many other have and will as well.

I seem to be drawn to these stories lately, Giovanni’s Room, Real Life, We The Animals all explore identity and sexuality and do it with beautiful tender prose and a dash of melancholy.

This book is set in the 80s and Tondelli really captures the tone of the time and this stood out to me more than anything.

A contemplative and moving story that’s less about romance than it is about what happens when love is cut tragically short.

Leo, an Italian writer in his thirties, has his whole world shattered when his younger lover Thomas dies of AIDS. The novel is based somewhat on the author's own life experiences and that closeness to the story is apparent in the meticulous details and sense of realism prevalent throughout. Though not an easy or accessible book, I was grateful to have read it. We know from the outset that Thomas is going to die, but the story dances around this event, seemingly unable to depict it head on. This stylistic choice mimics Leo’s avoidance of his own grief, and makes for a unique reading experience.

I found the first third of the book the easiest to follow narratively. The latter section was difficult for me to get through. This was due to the plot and time periods shifting rapidly, the more introspective tone of this portion in general , and that perennial issue of translated works, the prose coming off as stilted and odd when rendered in another language. Nonetheless, there was still something of value there. Leo’s memory of seeing a group of young tourists carefree and feasting on a ferry deck, and his likening that to the rest of the world going on after Thomas’s death was powerful, beautiful stuff.

Separate Rooms is a complex and nuanced story for those with the patience for it.

Very engaging and interesting read. Very well developed and ambitious. Will be recommending to library collection and patrons.

the first half of the book was probably a 4.5 star section and he really succeeds in making us feel for the chars. the second half was good dragged and was probably closer to a 3 star. average it out for a 4 star review. tysm for the arc.

Rich in realism. Love this story so much. I wish I was around when this story was first published but I’m glad a new generation will be able to experience it just like I did

Just the way I like it - brooding and melancholy with lots of art references. It is also a fascinating document of its time, exposing structural normativities in both their hetero and homo forms. The latter is especially interesting in the novel because of its femme phobia and insistence on an idea of masculinity that appears in contemporary queer circles as a relict of the deep past, but that still occasionally rears its ugly head.

4.5 /5 : Very good.

Gosh. This is an Italian novel originally published in 1989, just a few years before the author's own death due to AIDS and soon to be published in England in the US for the first time. Thanks to Zando and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my review.

This book is stunningly melancholy, so beautifully written and translated. We follow Leo as he flees his dying boyfriend Thomas's bedside and travels around the globe reflecting on himself, his relationships, and who he'll become after Thomas. Truthfully, Leo is a troubling character to sit with. He carries the trauma of being someone deeply religious and attuned to the aesthetics of religious practice but can no longer access them in the same way because he's gay. He loves his partners but keeps them distant (an agreement he and Thomas term "separate rooms"), in part because he feels that since he cannot fully belong to another man in society's eyes the same way he could fully belong to another woman. His relationships are volatile and he and his partners don't treat each other that well, but there's some aspect of Leo that finds this cathartic. Which becomes a little more literal in an erotic back room scene in the third act that I found...dizzying.

All that said, he's not a tragic caricature; he's complex and well-developed, ultimately coming to an understanding that while he craves connection and community that he's willing and able to build, he ultimately needs to be single. The book resolves, which I don't always expect in a short literary fiction of this style. While reading, I felt an incredible range of emotion and some passages kept me so captivated I could barely breathe - including the best narrativization of a psychedelic trip that I've ever read. Unfortunately, it drags a little bit in the middle but is well worth the push.

What a treasure to finally have published to an American audiences. We have really missed out on this beautiful piece of queer literary history.

I loved this one! The prose and language is just beautiful. I read all of this in one day I couldn’t stop it was such a tragic and heartbreaking tale with lots of nostalgia and themes of grief, mourning and acceptance. A story that will stick with me for a long time. I am excited now to see how it will be as a movie, I think it will be amazing with Luca taking on the film! I really remind this one 5/5 from me!

So impactful and so devastating. Absolutely was not in the right headspace for this but still very happy to have experienced it.

beautiful prose and so sad!! i was in a constant state of mourning!! because it was mostly internal narration it did drag on a bit but read if you like reading about sad gay men!

Oh, wow… The writing is impeccable. Every page is crafted so carefully and carries meaning that sometimes punches the reader in the gut. Pier Vittorio Tondelli created a character that portrayed the complexity of the human condition so well, and the imagery of the separated rooms/worlds was so powerful. This was poetic, melancholic and still so incredibly beautiful.

very beautifully written and very sad but the middle kind of dragged a bit bc this book is mostly narration! that being said!! luca guadagnino and josh o'connor are going to make a fantastic movie out of this!!! can't wait for it to ruin me!!

I really just floated through this. It Felt like a dream. I can understand the constant jumps in the time line could be a bit jarring at first, but I feel it was very intentional. It gave me a sense of what Leo was feeling. The grief, loneliness, confusion, and longing to understand

I foolishly, with my limited knowledge of Italian, bought this novel years ago. The Italian version was absolutely impossible for me so I was thrilled when I learnt that it was being publish in English.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for acceding to my request.

The plot is thin and if you are reading it for the plot you are bound to be disappointed. The language is poetic and the translator has done a stupendous job of making this accessible as in English, not at all an easy job.

The novel is episodic and moves from one narrative to another and from one moment of time to another without much notice. One tends to get lost if one tries to put the episodes in chronological order. But is this really necessary? One does not gain much by trying to impose this order when much of what happens, occurs in the mind of the author.

Thomas, a German musician and Leo and older writer have been lovers. Now, Thomas is dying (presumably of AIDS) and Leo is distraught. He travels from city to city dwelling on the past and their life together and searching for the meaning of life and death. As most of the novel is stream of consciousness and relies on memory the reader has no other option but to go with the flow.

While they were together Leo always wanted space and he and Thomas lived in separate rooms, often in separate cities. Once when they are forced to live together Leo is very disconcerted. Even Leo’s relationship with his family is strained. Now the tables are turned and Leo finds himself locked in a “separate room” of his own making while Thomas is dying with his family around him.

The novel is a penetrating and accurate portrait of gay life probably in the 1980s when the novel was first published in Italian. Love and loss are described in overwhelmingly heart wrenching and all consuming terms. Yet there are also passages of great warmth and affection

I believe this is going to be made into a film. It will be interesting to see how the director handles the themes and the long interior monologues.

I feel like this will be a beautiful movie, but I really struggled with the writing and it all felt a bit disjointed and difficult to follow at times.

While Tondelli’s prose is poetic and intense, the narrative can feel disjointed at times, leaving certain character arcs underdeveloped. The book’s candid treatment of love and sexuality is both its strength and its weakness, depending on the reader's expectations. While the story resonates with emotional truth, its fragmented structure left me feeling disconnected. Overall, it's a compelling but uneven read that captures the turmoil of coming-of-age, even if it doesn’t always tie everything together in a satisfying way.