Books in the Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiographies series

That Gad Beck, a gay Jew in the Berlin of Nazi Germany, lived through the Holocaust at all is amazing. His determination to keep loving, living and believing in every human possibility - even in the face of the unthinkably monstrous - makes this quite a different story of the Holocaust.

Ultimately a romance - of Lori Soderlind's love for America, her dog, the long-term partner she left behind, and the childhood crush she remembers with a big, aching pang - The Change offers daring and often hilarious insights into loss and acceptance, especially when it takes a while to get there.

A memoir that chronicles the outward antics of a woman on an inward journey to self through the routes of religion, sex, sobriety, and kids.

Young Air Force veteran Edward Field, fresh from combat in WWII, threw himself into New York's literary bohemia, searching for fulfillment as a gay man and poet. This memoir opens the closet door to reveal some of the most important writers of his time. It brings back a forgotten era, postwar Bohemia, bawdy, comical, romantic, sad, and heroic.

Blending poetry, prose and autobiographical details, ""Development"" and ""Two Selves"" together constitute a compelling bildungsroman that follows a young woman's process of coming out. Through the fictionalized character Nancy, the novels trace Bryher's life through her childhood and young adulthood.

Burdened by poverty, illiteracy, and vulnerability as Mexican immigrants to California's Coachella Valley, three generations of Gonzalez men turn to vices or withdraw into depression. As brothers Rigoberto and Alex grow to manhood, they are haunted by the traumas of their mother's early death, their lonely youth, their father's desertion, and their grandfather's invective.

The record of a thrilling and tormenting gay love affair in World War II England, these letters also reveal a devastating experience of disability and, above all, the awakening of a remarkable and unforgettable literary voice.