Lessons from Cruising

"A ravishing collection, remarkably wide-ranging in subject, mood and tone, each story exquisitely crafted. A complicated young man embarked on a romantic adventure and diving into deeper water than he can safely navigate. A clergyman shedding his faith as he retraces the footsteps of St. Paul. Several linked tales chronicling lovely Arnold's wondrous, ultimately bittersweet wet dream of a life. A boldly imagined 'missing' scene from Melville's Billy Budd. These stories explore the cadences and crises of gay men's lives with fine, empathetic insight. Goodman's attention to detail often combines with verbal felicity to memorialize even the most ordinary moments. Powerful and affecting work." Paul Russell, author of Immaculate Blue "Martin Goodman's wild, irreverent and fetching stories pulled me in. I was especially taken by his Melvillian outake on Billy Budd, the fine last story in this collection, which is moving and weirdly plausible." Jay Parini, author of The Passages of Herman Melville and Borges and Me

Martin Goodman sat down to be a writer at the age of twelve, and three months later decided the market wasn't ready for him yet. Work took him to Berlin, the Netherlands, Italy, Thailand, China, Qatar and Saudi Arabia as well as around the UK. He was buying time to write. His debut novel On Bended Knees, just re-released, was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award, and his most recent one The Cellist of Dachau, takes music and the Holocaust as its themes. Nonfiction books, some award-winning, are about the sacred, fights to save the environment, and the history of medicine. Born in Leicester, he studied English at Leeds, took a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Lancaster, and is professor emeritus of creative writing at the University of Hull. He shares homes in Los Angeles, London and Lowestoft with his husband, the environmental lawyer, writer and Zen priest James Thornton. "Such narrow, narrow confines we live in. Every so often, one of us primates escapes these dimensions, as Martin Goodman did. All we can do is rattle the bars and look after him as he runs into the hills. We wait for his letters home." The Los Angeles Times

The Lovely Life of Arnold 1 Lessons from Cruising 11 Puffins in Flight 34 Everything I Am. Arnold, Age 21 40 The Loving Room 58 My Tri-Athlete. Arnold, Age 28 68 Queenie and the Boy 75 Cupcakes at tea 85 India, by Design. Arnold, Age 35 88 When toffee-apples turn to juice 97 Letters to the Parishioners 104 Mom, In Passing. Arnold, Age 42 123 Billy Budd: Captain Veres Account 135