Bach in the Barn by Leigh Ellis
Rylan Hynes is an author of fantastical queer stories and the communications manager at The Telling Room, a youth literary arts education organization in Portland, Maine. For their Read & Loved selection they highlight Leigh Ellis, a Telling Room writer and recipient of the 2022 Maine Literary Award for Youth Poetry. Rylan praises Leigh’s new novel Bach in the Barn.
“Leigh Ellis' prose is powerful, lyrical, and endlessly creative, and their voice is in full force in their novel, BACH IN THE BARN; a young adult novel exploring queer identities, mental health, and coming of age in rural Maine. So much of this story resonated with me as an LGBTQ+ reader and spoke truth to my own experiences of growing up in our beloved state with a rare and precise authenticity. I highly recommend Leigh's work to lovers of Jeanette Winterson, Aiden Thomas, or Kacen Callender, and am excited for how this emerging author's words are creating space on bookshelves for LGBTQ+ voices.”
Author Leigh Ellis
Description
Really, neither of us knew anything. About life. About the future. About ourselves.
Deere, Maine. 1995. Thirteen-year-old Macy Griffin is less than honest with just about everyone in their life about their mother's unexplained suicide. After her death, as Macy starts to grapple with their own life-altering secret, one that contradicts everything their late mom believed in, Macy discovers a grotesque yet lovable alien in their family’s barn. Finally, another being to confide in—about their feelings for the golden-eyed new girl at school, about their mounting jealousy of their best friend, Levi, and about the ghost who watches over them from the branches of a weeping willow tree.
This imaginative young adult novel is a touching and important story about coming of age and finding one’s identity.
You can read more and purchase Bach in the Barn here on the Telling Room’s website.
To submit your own Read & Loved feature of a “hidden gem by a Maine author” visit our form here