About the Author

Brian Malloy is the acclaimed author of The Year of Ice, Brendan Wolf, Twelve Long Months, and After Francesco, which was named a Great Group Reads selection of the Women's National Book Association and National Reading Group Month. He is the recipient of the Bloomsday Literary Award, the American Library Association Alex Award, and the Minnesota Book Award. As an early employee of the Minnesota AIDS Project, Malloy helped organize the state's first AIDS Walk in 1988 and has remained an engaged member of the community. He received his MFA from the University of Minnesota and currently teaches creative writing in Minneapolis. Visit him at MalloyWriter.com

Reviews

Advance praise for Brian Malloy and After Francesco

"After Francesco is a tribute to those who died from AIDS and those who loved them...filled with humor, grief, heartbreak, recovery, the endurance of love, and eventually, hope."
—Saint Paul Pioneer Press

"This novel is fresh, well-observed, often funny, sometimes angry, and always real. I can't think of another novel about the AIDS years that captures that difficult, messy, intense age more accurately or movingly." 
—Christopher Bram, author of Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America
 
"In this highly recommended novel, the pain and rage felt by Kevin and those in the trenches with him is palpable and uncomfortable and real. So too is the love and warmth of spirit they manage to nurture in order to survive."
—Library Journal (Starred Review)

“With characters who are flawed and funny, courageous and fearful, Brian Malloy tells a story that could serve as a guidebook on how to love, how to fight for those we love, and how to honor those we've lost without losing ourselves. Beautifully written and infused with a sly humor, After Francesco is a love letter to life.”
—Lorna Landvik, author of Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons

“Heart-breaking, gut-wrenching, yet somehow also sweet and funny, After Francesco is a must-read for those who survived the AIDS epidemic, those who merely witnessed it, and those who never knew about it but need to know now. Brian Malloy has crafted a universal tale of grief and resilience.”
—Bonnie Kistler, author of House on Fire
 
“Furious, funny, and beautiful, After Francesco immerses the reader in the crisis of the AIDS epidemic in 1980s in New York. Brian Malloy has created a cast of characters so memorable—so vividly witty and aggrieved and brave and bewildered—you'll never want to put this novel down.”
—Julie Schumacher, author of Dear Committee Members
 
“This is a character I trust completely as a reader, a character who accesses sharp gallows humor as readily as tears, a character both insecure and brave, a character who effortlessly evokes the 1980s East Village he loves but despises. This book centers around a convincing love story, something uncommon enough, but more than that it’s a book about the strength of friendships that are forged in the face of so many enemies and threats. Honest, sarcastic, bighearted—you'll wish it didn't have to end.”
—John Brandon, author of Further Joy

Praise for Brian Malloy:

"A tribute to Malloy's skill."
—The New York Times on THE YEAR OF ICE

"The Year of Ice is a grabber from the get-go. . . . Family dysfunction, honor, and honesty are all major themes, filtered through the limitation's of a teenager's mind-set and handled with deft humor."
—The Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Malloy masterfully blends the page turning plot and brooding atmosphere of neo-noir with an affecting sensitivity to the stuggle for human connection."
—Out on BRENDAN WOLF