This love story is as beautiful as it is moving and unforgettable. The two must find ways to meet each other in the middle of insecurities, identity struggles, bullying, abuse, and the processes of coming out to a world that seemingly doesn't want them to. The taboo nature of their coupling is raw and real since their homeland has essentially outlawed homosexuality.

August struggles with self-confidence and worthiness but these issues take a back seat once he meets confident, unapologetic Segun at a cybercafe and becomes immediately enamored. This electric debut from Nigerian writer Ani Kayode Somtochukwu chronicles the lives of two queer students, August and Segun, at the University of Nigeria. 'And Then He Sang a Lullaby' by Ani Kayode Somtochukwu, $27 (Grove Press/Roxane Gay) June This inventive brain-bending first novel by Chong will twist and turn in your mind long after you finish. Brandon gets a strange job offer from tech company Flux, founded by a mysterious overachieving firebrand, and the story begins its extensive series of detours and unexpected timeline zips and zaps. There are three central characters and several genres working at the book's core: young Bo who is actively grieving his mother's death Blue, a mute middle-aged man who just came out of a two-month coma and half-Korean queer magazine worker Brandon, 28, who is fired just before Christmas. This debut reads like a fever dream caught in a spinning house of mirrors. 'Flux' by Jinwoo Chong, $26.99 (Melville House)

This is a surprising engrossing story of innocence, obsession and desire. Though theirs is not the only relationship the novel explores - Natalie's dorm-mate Clara is on hand to create even more insecurities as well as a classmate having an affair with a poetry professor - the age gap and power structure dynamics between Natalie and Nora is kept front and center in a page-turning novel that explores the emotionally revelatory nature of sexual awakenings. Enter Nora, a woman almost twice her age, who seduces her and unleashes a torrent of self-doubt, self-conscious stress, and the kind of sexual energy that percolates with desire and need throughout the story. Toronto lesbian author Fischer's insightful coming-of-age novel follows eighteen-year-old poet Natalie as she embarks on her first year at a Canadian college. 'The Adult' by Bronwyn Fischer, $27 (Algonquin Books) May 23

The adult bronwyn fischer