The Pairing

How it reads

The Pairing is romance (queer travel romance, specifically), and its dominant mood is romantic. The relationship is the engine of the story. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in an international setting, in the present day, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are love, identity and art and creativity. In weight it's light and escapist — easy to fall into.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. At 407 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.