Proud Pink Sky
Described as “gripping” and a “remarkable alternate history” by Publisher’s Weekly!
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In this stunning work of speculative urban fiction, Redfern Jon Barrett breaks down the binary between utopia and dystopia—presenting an ambitopian vision of the world’s first gay state.
A glittering gay metropolis of 24 million people, Berlin is a bustling world of pride parades, polyamorous trysts, and even an official gay language. Its distant radio broadcasts are a lifeline for teenagers William and Gareth, who flee toward sanctuary. But is there a place for them in the deeply divided city?
Meanwhile, young mother Cissie loves Berlin’s towering high rises and chaotic multiculturalism, yet she’s never left her heterosexual district—not until she and her family are trapped in a queer riot. With her husband Howard plunging into religious paranoia, she discovers a walled-off slum of perpetual twilight, home to the city’s forbidden trans residents.
Challenging assumptions of sex and gender, Proud Pink Sky questions how much of ourselves we need to sacrifice in order to find identity and community.
PRAISE FOR PROUD PINK SKY
‘As astute and frightening as Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, yet reads with the pace and energy of a modern action thriller.’
– Drew Rowsome for My Gay Toronto‘Proud Pink Sky is an impressively readable piece of work that captivates you early on and drags you effortlessly into a utopia that isn’t quite what it’s cracked up to be. You’ll enjoy the charcter, the story, and the setting. What more could you ask for?’
– Jerry Wheeler, for Out in Print‘Every move in Barrett’s social and political worldbuilding is engineered to draw pointed illustrations of homonormativity, complicity with state power, and the roots of these flaws in internalised homophobia.’
– Catherine Baker, for Strange Horizons‘… an important, well-written, complex tale that will grip you, shake you, and give you a different view of what makes a utopia, and at what costs.’
– Lucy, for Queer Sci Fi‘Read it or regret it.’
– Eliza B., for Queer Sci Fi"The ferocity of Barrett’s imagination gives the middle finger to regressive authors like JK Rowling with colourful characters and impressive world-building."
– Andrea Birmingham, for Siegessäule‘Barrett’s deeply human story of lives, loves, tragedy and hope touches us all in its universality … It asks us what it is to be a real ally, it asks us to look beyond our comfortable privilege, it urges us to hold out our hands to our LGBTQ+ siblings and feel the commonality, and fight for equality for all. Proud Pink Sky reminds us that hope will never be silent.’
– Eric Page, for GScene‘Like most utopian/dystopian novels, the main point of this novel is showing us a hypothetical universe – what would the world be like if LGBTQ people had defeated, or at least helped to defeat, the Nazis? What would a city-state run by and for LGBTQ people be like? … Utopian novels tend to be weak when it comes to having an actual plot, but Barrett dodges that problem’
– Kelly Jennings, for Interzone‘… remarkable alternate history of 1990s Berlin from Barrett’
– Publisher’s Weekly‘Clearly Barrett is a rising star in LGBTQ literature, a luminous presence to follow closely. Recommended on many levels.’
– Grady Harp, author of War Songs
‘Tender and heart-breaking, Proud Pink Sky is centred on a Berlin that could have been – a paradisal Gay Republic that is not all it seems – and it's absolutely captivating, a perfect blend of reality and fiction, disquiet and hope, caution and celebration. Beautifully conceived and deeply affecting, Proud Pink Sky is a book you'll want to return to again and again.’
– Calder Szewczak, author(s) of The Offset‘The conflicts and conversations - both micro and macro - will be achingly familiar to anyone who has been engaged with queer or trans movements in recent years, helping us to remember the vital need for coalition and solidarity right now. Please read this book!'
– MJ Barker, author of Queer: A Graphic History‘Drawing on an in-depth knowledge of queer history, Proud Pink Sky richly imagines an alternative world that is neither utopia nor dystopia. Barrett’s vertical Berlin is a setting built on dreams, yet pocked with flaws, nuances, and squabbles that make it feel credible and strangely universal. Intriguing and occasionally shattering, Proud Pink Sky defies binaries in more ways than one, making it a compelling and welcome addition to the speculative Queer canon.’
– Christian Baines, author of The Beast Without‘Redfern’s fabulous “what if?” envisions the queerest of timelines – a post-war Berlin that refashions itself as the world’s only gay city-state. This electrifying tour through a would-be utopia riven by its own contradictory laws, traditions, and prejudices is at once deeply celebratory and critical. Like Nineteen Eight-Four, its distant ancestor, the novel questions and probes but dares to hope for a happier, freer future.’
– Brett Josef Grubisic, author of The Age of Cities and My Two-Faced Luck‘To enter the pages of Proud Pink Sky is to be engulfed by a tidal power of masterful storytelling, morphing histories, and utopian imaginings. Boundaries of families and colonies, maps and guidebooks, words and sounds, dissolve into delicious, heady outcomes in this vital inhabitation of queer homelands. The crisp narrative pace combines with sensuous contours of language to remind one that to belong to an electrifying urban milieu is to also belong to its many troubled, unspoken intimacies and exiles. Redfern Jon Barrett has composed a virtuosic novel of fearless incantations.’
– Gayathri Prabhu, author of If I Had to Tell It Again‘In Proud Pink Sky, Redfern Jon Barrett demonstrates that utopias and dystopias are not the opposites of each other – they coexist in the exact same space. With Barett's eye for both history and prophecy, the Gay Republic of Berlin feels as lived in as a real nation. Though they've built an imaginative and thought-through alternative universe, they don't stop there; the yearnings and struggles of their characters are also true and engrossing. Barrett's novel is a compelling page-turning read and an important warning.’
– Paul Gallant, author of Still More Stubborn Stars‘I freaking loved how Proud Pink Sky takes the dangers of respectability politics, alongside the bi-erasure, the hostility and ignorance around polyamory, the internal trans-hate within the queer community, and the focus on false binaries, all from within our real-world queer movements, and plays them out on this stage.’
– ‘Nathan Burgoine, author of Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks‘Proud Pink Sky takes place in the world's first gay state. It's dystopic, literary, unbelievably creative, and loaded with compelling, intricately-defined characters. In short, this book is a triumph.’
– Joe Okonkwo, author of Kiss the Scars on the Back of My Neck