Advocate Bookshelf: Gay Baseball, Perverse Painters, and the Religious Right

Searching for Gilead: A Novel by David G. Hallman (iUniverse, $21.95)

When they meet  in 1976, Tom Fischer and Jonathan Compton, the young protagonists in Searching for Gilead immediately fall in love. The next 30 years see the couple’s families become increasingly at odds, with one side devoted to business and the other to missionary service. It's a gay modern Romeo and Juliet. Toronto-based author David Hallman has written several nonfiction books, including last year's very touching memoir August Farewell, which wove vignettes from his 33-year relationship into the story of his partner's final two weeks of life. Gilead, his first novel, could be a thinly veiled retelling of his own life, and a life dedicated to the United Church of Canada and the World Council of Churches. That familiarity with the subject has led to a realistic portrayal of convoluted familial relationships and  an honest examination of questions about God, injustice, love, and death with a story that's more universal than it is gay — rare for a self-published book. (iUniverse.com)