The Imagined Life

A moving, layered, and engrossing read, The Imagined Life follows Steven Mills, a man in a struggling marriage who becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth about the father who vanished from his life when he was only twelve. Driving up the coast of California, Steven seeks out his fathers friends, family, and former colleagues, and is transported back to his 1980s childhoodhis parents legendary pool parties, black-and-white films on the backyard projector, his fathers male friends in the cabana house... With every revelation his father becomes more difficult to recognize, and, with every insight, Steven must confront truths about his own life. In cinematic prose, Andrew Porter explores the full nexus of male relationships: fathers and sons, husbands and loversset achingly against the US AIDS epidemic in the 1980sand masterfully weaves a tale of trauma, generational secrets, forbidden love, and shame.