Christopher by Allison Burnett

Christopher by Allison Burnett is a witty, sharp-edged novel about desire, idealism, and the surprising ways people change each other.

B. K. Troop—unemployed, middle-aged, bipolar, gay, and bitingly witty—never expects much from life until he meets his new neighbor, Christopher Ireland. Though Christopher is young, straight, and emotionally adrift, B.K. becomes determined to seduce him, setting off a year-long battle of desire, observation, and unexpected transformation.
 
💖 Why You’ll Love It
A sharply funny, incisive narrative voice
A subversive take on seduction and power
Explores sexuality, idealism, and self-deception with humor
Characters who evolve in surprising, deeply human ways
 
🌟 Perfect For
Readers who enjoy witty, character-driven literary fiction
Fans of LGBTQ+ novels with humor and edge
Book clubs that appreciate voice-forward storytelling
Readers who like satire mixed with emotional insight
 
In Christopher, Allison Burnett delivers a clever, unconventional novel narrated by B. K. Troop, a lonely, caustically observant man whose sharp wit masks deep vulnerability. When Christopher Ireland moves in next door—an earnest twenty-five-year-old reeling from divorce and searching for meaning—B.K. appoints himself the Big Bad Wolf, determined to seduce a man he knows is hopelessly heterosexual. As the year unfolds, B.K. chronicles Christopher’s misadventures with love, politics, creativity, and self-definition, all filtered through his own sardonic gaze. But as often happens in stories of seduction, the hunter becomes the hunted, and B.K. is forced to confront emotions far more dangerous than lust. Funny, tender, and intellectually nimble, Christopher is ultimately a novel about how people remake one another in ways neither expects.