★ “Writing beautifully with a knowing, gentle hand that balances Lily’s unease and courage, Lo presents a must-read love story in an uncommon setting: the midcentury queer Bay Area at a time when racism, homophobia, and McCarthyism held tight grips on the citizenry. … Shout it from the highest hills: This is a beautiful, brave story, and Lily is a heroine that readers will love.” ★ “Malinda Lo’s Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a work of historical fiction that’s as meticulously researched as it is full of raw, authentic emotion. Beautifully written historical fiction about giddy, queer, first love.' ★ 'Finally, the intersectional, lesbian, historical teen novel so many readers have been waiting for. With deportation looming over her father–despite his hard-won citizenship–Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.

Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club.Īmerica in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. It was about two women, and they fell in love with each other.” And then Lily asked the question that had taken root in her, that was even now unfurling its leaves and demanding to be shown the sun: “Have you ever heard of such a thing?” Winner of the stonewall book award Winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for LiteraturE A New York Times BESTSELLERĪcclaimed author of Ash Malinda Lo returns with her most personal and ambitious novel yet, a gripping story of love and duty set in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the Red Scare.

The last night at the telegraph club