Douglas Stewart

And I said just very casually one day, well, and of course, some of them might be gay and that makes it harder to find love.

And the woman I said it to said sort of reared back and said, oh, no, no, no, that's that's not so that's not possible.

And of course, I just knew historically that some of them must have been maybe not the people we were talking about, but gay.

but some of these people that had never found love.

And that was really the moment that the novel came to life.

I had gone thinking it was about the return of a prodigal son, and then I realized it wasn't about that at all.

It was about the people he had left behind.

Yeah, I think they're definitely men of a different generation, although tradition is very strong in the setting of the novel.

And for John, because he is very close to scripture, he is part of a church that believes in a very traditional conservative viewpoint.

Any sex outside of one man, one woman inside of a marriage is absolutely taboo.

And so he has come up in that environment and has remained in the fictional settlement of Fallaby his whole life.

And so he's never really seen any evidence of anything outside, another way to live, another way to be.

And also, in many ways, you know, gay is a social identity.

It is about a community and an outlook in the world.

It's not just about a sexual identity.

And so for John, he has no way to access a social identity.

All he is is he has homosexual desires.

He is attracted to other men.

Whereas Cal is, you know, a youth in the 90s and he went to the mainland.

He managed to go to college for four years.