Separate Rooms

Separate Rooms tells the story of Leo, a renowned Italian writer, and Thomas, a young German musician who is dying. Unable to witness Thomas's slow decline, Leo abandons him and wanders across Europe, moving between cities every few weeks in search of the boundary between life and death. As Leo travels through Europe, his memories of Thomas surface repeatedly—from their time together in Paris to a drug-fueled journey through northern France that marked the relationship's end. While Thomas was alive, Leo had insisted they maintain separate rooms, separate towns, and separate lives to preserve the passion between them. Now facing true solitude, Leo must confront how memory struggles to recreate life and ultimately find the strength to continue. The novel is structured in three musical movements and explores love, grief, and the experience of being a gay man in 1980s Europe. It was written by Pier Vittorio Tondelli, an Italian literary talent previously unpublished in the US.