Paolo G. Grossi

LGBTQ Stories & Historical Fiction

S-Bahn nachts

In March 2020, a full lockdown meant long and tedious days and nights spent in the secluded comfort of our home. The best of times to embark on writing a book. It was fun and kept me sane.

And here I am, a year later, cheekily asking people to read it. 

Now that I have gained a taste for it, I have a couple of other projects in the pipeline. 

As for myself, well, like most Milanese I was brought up on an overpowering diet of opera, elegance and superb cuisine, staples we'd rather die than go without. 

I tumbled through youthful and cataclysmic spells in Amsterdam and some other forsaken corners of the world before settling in London more than thirty years ago. My partner David and I still dwell in the Big Smoke.

Berlin is, of course, in our hearts. If you decide to be brave and read The Tiergarten Tales, you'll find out why.

At the happiest in an opera house, whether at the Staatsoper or at the Rossini Opera Festival in quel di Pesaro and, of course, cycling along the Wannsee on a sunny summer day.

Mit Flammkuchen und Bier, natürlich.

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Ten short stories following the lives, love affairs and misdemeanours of men and boys of Berlin across its turbulent history.

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In the present day young Karl falls for glamorous Bill, an American in the midst of  a mid-life crisis as big as his bank balance.

Felix and Walther bestride a deep class divide, forging an enduring bond in 1890s Prussia.

Kaspar and Max navigate the fraught upheavals of the Weimar Republic by skilfully marketing the only commodity in demand, unaware that it will lead them onto different and dangerous paths in their lives.

Roland and Heiko spend a blissful summer of true friendship sailing on a boat along the placid waters of the Wannsee, revealing repressed truths to each other.

Young Kazimierz leaves his impoverished Silesian village and sets off on an epic journey to the Prussian capital, the seat of an ageing Frederick the Great, not knowing that his heavenly beauty, endearing naivety and, ultimately, fate will transform his life once through the gates of the city.

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Echoes within echoes. Circles within circles: the world of privilege - snobbish, hierarchical and obsessed with class, the world of poverty and moral compromise, the toxic masculinity of the German Empire and the Prussian officer class.

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A novel? A collection of short stories? A play within? And why not all three? 

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