Overall, I thought that this was an excellent book. It fulfilled my main requirements in a fiction book: an engaging story, believable characters and an opportunity to learn something (although there was a slight wrinkle with the last of these - comments below).
The story is set in three time periods: 1959/60, early 80s and 2020. The story was characterised by the events around each of these time periods, respectively: the treatment (torture?) of patients in a mental hospital to “cure” them of their homosexuality, the beginning of the AIDS epidemic and the COVID lockdown. There are story threads that run between the timeframes and the author subtly compares the times and events.
A really clever device is used to show that the story is essentially constructed as a recollection from the 2020 version of the main protagonist: the first two periods are written in the third person, but the last in the first person.
In terms of my education, I did learn from this book. Specifically, I now understand much more clearly the inhumane (by today’s standards) practice of endeavouring to “cure” homosexuals. However, I am always a little wary of how assiduous an author's research has been when I spot a glaring error. In this case, it is no big deal, but there is a reference to blood being stored in bags in 1959. At that time, glass bottles were used; bags did not come into use until the '70s. Just me being pedantic perhaps …
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