I'm somewhat surprised about how little noise this novel creates among gay and lesbian reading community. The book was released in late October 2002 and no reviews are posted on here. Anyway, I stumbled across this elegantly-covered novel at a local store, flipped over several pages and decided to adopt it for the holiday reading list. The book was both revealing and compelling from the beginning: Forty-year-old William Addams is dying of the incurable epidermics. Cynical and estranged from his family, William is consumed and burdened by the fear that he will be abandoned by lover Henry and best friend Susan. As William's illness worsens, he struggles with fear of dying, battles with the thoughts of being maimed, and on top of that fear of losing his cloest friends. What William wants is for Henry and Susan to persevere until they take him home to his beloved house by the coast to die. William's desperation focuses on testing his friends' loyalty and playing with their sympathy. From page one you will already have known the outcome of the story, yet the author has chronicled the course of the disease in a very humane fashion. It is as if we can feel William's physical pain and experience the pang of his fear. The book is disturbing to read as you go on, but it is filled with dazzling beauty. The prose is cut-to-the-point. 4.1 stars.