Summerhouse

Fehmi and Şener have shared a life for forty years, a long run for any couple and a remarkable one for two gay men in Turkey. They live on Büyükada, a quiet island near Istanbul, where the days look idyllic. Behind closed doors, though, the household is tense, and it wouldn't take much to set it off.

The spark is Deniz, the strikingly good-looking and troubled teenager who lives next door. Fehmi notices him straight away. What Fehmi sees as a harmless crush puts Şener on edge. He doubts Deniz would ever return Fehmi's interest, but he isn't willing to gamble on it.

One betrayal leads to another, and Deniz starts working on a plan of his own. The hot summer turns dark, and the couple's bond is tested harder than it ever has been. Lust and love pull in different directions, and by the end of this love triangle not everyone will be left standing.

This debut novel by Yiğit Karaahmet is gossipy, tense and full of black humor. It also makes a pointed political case for letting gay characters be as flawed as anyone else, and it gives us two oddly lovable antiheroes who could pass for Tom Ripley's grandfathers. Think of a Patricia Highsmith plot set inside a long-married household, with all the mischief that implies.