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Top 5 holiday romance novels chosen by author Kimberly Campanello

Want your poolside reading to come with an edge? Look no further

Scandalous, transgressive and queer stories of summer loving, selected by award-winning poet and author Kimberly Campanello, who is professor of poetry at the University of Leeds.

Green Wheat by Colette 

This short novel created a scandal when published in 1923. A boy and a girl tip over from childhood friendship into erotic young adulthood on the Breton coastline. A mysterious woman in white does more than look on.

August is a Wicked Month by Edna O’Brien 

As the title suggests, hot, transgressive, sexy, time-limited vibing. A single mother leaves the pressures of London and parenthood behind in the French Riviera. Banned in Ireland when released in 1965. 

Call Me by Your Name by Andre Aciman  

If you missed this hit queer coming-of-age novel, get caught up this summer. You’ll be as romanced by the rendering of seasonal rhythms in the Italian Rivera as the characters are by each other. 

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Hot Milk by Deborah Levy 

The Medusa, the sea creature, an open-mouthed feminine trope, will not turn you to stone – here, she animates the glistening prose as the protagonist swims towards and away from lovers, the sea and the heat, and her inexplicably ill and troubled mother.

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The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey

You are transported into the pasts of the lands of the Taino, now called the Caribbean, and witness a fisherman and a mermaid fall in love. Here is the power of romance to remind us of the ground beneath our feet even as we glide across love’s waters. 

Use the Words You Haveby Kimberly Campanello is out now (Somesuch, £9.99).

Some of these titles are available to buy from the Big Issue shop on Bookshop.org, which helps to support the Big Issue and independent bookshops.

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