Nova Scotia House, Charlie Porter
Nova Scotia House, Charlie Porter
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Nova Scotia House

Author: Charlie Porter

Narrator: Charlie Porter

Unabridged: 8 hr 1 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/20/2025

Synopsis

Johnny Grant faces stark life decisions. Seeking answers, he looks back to his relationship with Jerry Field. When they met, nearly thirty years ago, Johnny was nineteen, Jerry was forty-five. They fell in love and made a life on their own terms in Jerry’s flat: 1, Nova Scotia House. Johnny is still there today—but Jerry is gone, and so is the world they knew.As Johnny’s mind travels between then and now, he begins to remember stories of Jerry’s youth: of experiments in living; of radical philosophies; of the many possibilities of love, sex, and friendship before the AIDS crisis devastated the queer community. Slowly, he realizes what he must do next—and attempts to restore ways of being that could be lost forever. Nova Scotia House takes us to the heart of a relationship, a community, and an era. It is both a love story and a lament; bearing witness to the enduring pain of the AIDS pandemic and honoring the joys and creativity of queer life. Intimate, visionary, and profoundly original, it marks the debut of a vibrant new voice in contemporary fiction, and a writer with a liberating new story to tell.

About Charlie Porter

Charlie Porter is a writer, fashion critic and curator. He has written for the Financial Times, The Guardian, The New York Times, GQ, Luncheon, i-D, and Fantastic Man, and has been described as one of the most influential fashion journalists of his time. Porter co-runs the London queer rave Chapter 10, and is a trustee of the Friends of Arnold Circus, where he is also a volunteer gardener. He lives in London.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Mark Kwesi on June 19, 2025

Okay, 2025 has been a great reading year so far, but this is without question the most memorable book I’ve read in a while. A queer manifesto that’s sex-positive (especially for a novel about the AIDS epidemic), sad, radical, and unapologetically non-conformist. I didn’t want it to end. It’s the kind......more

Goodreads review by Melanie on March 23, 2025

This is a beautifully written, unflinching examination of love, loss and coming home. This novel is written in a stream of consciousness style, which I don't normally get on with, but the poetic prose is vivid and powerful and I was immediately drawn in and swept away by it's raw beauty. This is an in......more

Goodreads review by Doug on November 15, 2025

3.5, rounded down. I actually bought this prior to it making it onto the Goldsmith Prize shortlist but am just getting round to it now. The prize is given to a UK/Irish author that “breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form”, in this case presumably for its elliptical, repetitiv......more

Goodreads review by Paul on October 12, 2025

Shortlisted for the 2025 Goldsmiths Prize Before the nightmare began, the last thing we wanted was normality. Our lives were dedicated to the pursuit of queer magic ... We have to reconnect with queer magic today or else all is lost. Nova Scotia House is Charlie Porter's debut novel, although in commo......more

Goodreads review by Anne Bils on May 28, 2025

Queer Magic will never die. This story was deeply touching once I got into it. I struggled with the writig style but listening to it as an audiobook really helped with that. Could have done with less sex scenes and descriptions of sperm…......more

Quotes

“The fiction of Nova Scotia House asks both its reader and its author: How can we connect again with radical queerness and countercultural ideas of living? How can we live life as fully, optimistically, and queerly as possible?” Vogue

“Charlie Porter’s fashion journalism has been on my radar for a while. And I was most intrigued by his last book, which analyzed the style inherent to the Bloomsbury group. Porter’s debut novel takes that interest in playful forms to bold new places. Unfolding at the height of the AIDS crisis in 90s London, this diaristic reflection thrusts us right into our narrator’s skull, so we seek, remember, and mourn right along with Johnny Grant.” Lit Hub

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