Waiting on a Friend - Natalie Adler

Category: Historical Fiction, LGBT
Language: English
Keywords: Magical Realism Queer

Written by Natalie Adler
Read by Dani Martineck
Format: M4B
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
Release date: 05-26-26

“Fresh and refreshing, both heartbreaking and uplifting. Natalie Adler has given us a gem.”—Rabih Alameddine, winner of the National Book Award

“[A] powerhouse debut . . . This dazzles like a mirror ball.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Spellbinding.”—Library Journal (starred review)

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR: Oprah Daily, Debutiful, Lit Hub, Publishers Lunch

Renata is a young dyke-about-town who can see ghosts, something she’s doing more and more of lately as too many of her friends are dying of a new, terrifying disease. When Renata’s best friend Mark dies of complications from AIDS, Renata is devastated by the loss of the person she loved most in the world. And to her disappointment and increasing despair, Mark seems unwilling or unable to return for the proper goodbye they both were denied.

While Renata waits anxiously for Mark, she must stay vigilant: a mysterious, police-like force has begun ridding their East Village neighborhood of anything abnormal or inexplicable. What first seems like a scam reveals itself to be far more sinister, targeting the soul of Renata’s community. With her band of lovably eccentric pals and lovers, Renata is determined to fight back against the erasure of her friends’ memories and the sanitizing of her beloved New York. But haunting her every step is Mark, the one ghost who stubbornly refuses to reappear.

Both heartbreaking and healing, tragic and triumphant, Waiting on a Friend is a magical retelling of queer history and a celebration of youth and camaraderie. With pathos and humor, empathy and an edge, Natalie Adler freshly reimagines the past for a new generation, reclaiming the spirit of resistance and determination that would become one of the era’s defining legacies.