A searing collection of E. M. Forster’s short stories about forbidden sexuality and desire

‘Neither of them knew when the end came, and he when he realised it felt no sadness, no remorse’

Ranging from moving to satirical, historical to supernatural, Forster’s masterful storytelling is on full display in these tales of passion and betrayal. Love, death, class and race collide in these short stories, which are alive with sharp social observations and thrum with the threat of violence that stalked gay men’s lives.

Written between 1903 and 1957, only two out of the fourteen stories in this collection were published during E. M. Forster’s lifetime: most of the other stories remained unpublished because of their overtly gay themes.

Introduction by Diarmuid Hester

"Beautifully written . . . has a freshness, sparkle and bite" - Sunday Telegraph

"Have we been as ready for Forster's honesty as we thought we were? . . . the best realized of the homosexual stories dovetail perfectly into the best of all his work. Even the earliest and most ephemeral of them will be recognized as the frailer embodiments of the same passionate convictions that made for the moral iron of his novels" - New York Times Book Review