In the summer of 1985, on a post-collegiate adventure to Europe, Grey Tigrett's meticulously planned trip is derailed by an argument with an uninvited guest who threatens to ruin the trip. On the subsequent ferry ride to an unplanned destination, he waxes poetically in his journal to calm himself down.
"Before I saw Elba, there was nothing but sea and sky. Then it appeared, small on the horizon, an insignificant fleck just below the vanishing point. On the water, perspectives are not forged from hard angles. No perfect square is centered upon the edge of the sea. The imminence is the same, yet the path, variable. Nascent and amorphous, the island bobs up, down, right and left as the boat stays its course."
Fourteen years later, Grey Tigrett is still adrift. To escape the emotional paralysis of his carefully constructed life, he retreats to the sanctuary of his meticulous, analytical mind. But on the eve of the new millennium, three pivotal events shatter that refuge and lead him back to Elba - to discover whether his sexual awakening there was his undoing, or what will finally set him free.
Able Was I is not a typical LGBTQ+ coming-of-age novel, rather it explores the lifelong yearning to relive the intensity of one's coming of age and recapture the possibility lost in the years since.
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Drew Banks's Elba Trilogy-Able Was I, Ere I Saw Elba, and I Before E-is a multigenerational literary fiction series set between New York, Paris, and across Italy, and exploring themes of identity, exile, and chosen family. While these novels can be read independently, there are several characters and situations threaded through the trilogy that add nuance and texture to each story, especially given these characters and situations are conveyed through the lens of the novels' different protagonists.
This genre-blending trilogy will captivate readers who enjoy LGBTQ+ literature, coming-of-age journeys, historical fiction, family drama, romance, mysteries, European settings, and evocative "armchair travel" storytelling.
Industry Reviews
"...you have written a lyrical, almost poetic novel...It reminds me of Zora Neale Hurston in a lot of ways in Their Eyes Were Watching God."
- Frank Stasio, NPR affiliate: WUNC, "The State of Things"
"Banks' eye for detail is keen ..., nicely capturing the essences of various Manhattan neighborhoods, the pastoral beauty of Elba and the enchanting aspects of Rome. At times, these places fairly leap off the page into the reader's imagination."
- J.S. Hall, DallasVoice
"Banks ... eschews the droll humor that has become de rigeur in so many gay novels, and writes with a refreshing seriousness of purpose and eye for detail."
- Christopher Cappiello, IN Los Angeles
"[Banks] takes apart the physical and emotional aspect of a scene to give the reader a collage of images and words that seem to be reflected in splinters of a shattered mirror."
- Rebecca James, LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth
"Is Able Was I a gay novel?" I'm not sure. I will say the book has resonated with male and female readers alike. Women readers are particularly drawn to the emotional depth of the book. Gay male readers are drawn to among other things, pages 40-43.
- Jenny Stewart, PlanetOut
