![The Future Won't Be Long. By Jarett Kobek.](http://web.archive.org./web/20180204013332im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/h/0/b/a/r/w/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.h0bb4i.png/1514513885857.jpg)
The Future Won't Be Long
Jarett Kobek
Serpent's Tail, $32.99
From the author of I Hate the Internet, this coming-of-age novel set in '90s New York follows a gay teen from small-town Wisconsin. After the gruesome deaths of his parents, he moves to the Big Apple and rechristens himself Baby. He makes lifelong friends with Adeline, a cashed-up and cynical young woman from the West Coast. As the years pass, they both pursue artistic ambitions, while becoming immersed in the literary circuit and nightclub scenes. Weaving in real people and events, from Bret Easton Ellis to a notorious clubland murder, Jarett Kobek has created a big, debauched, nostalgia-rush of a book that evokes the queer and bohemian demi-monde of New York in the '90s with authentic spirit, and traces the evolution of a friendship with tenderness and keen insight.