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Waiting on a Friend
- Author
- Natalie Adler
- Narrator
- Dani Martineck
- Publisher
- Quercus
- Publish Date
- 26 May 2026
- Run Time
- 8 hours 17 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
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What to expect
'Funny, sexy, heartbreaking' Ann Napolitano
'Wildly inventive and moving' Patrick Ryan
East Village, summer of 1984. Renata is a young dyke-about-town who has the ability to see ghosts, which has been happening more and more frequently as her friends have started dying of what has recently been named AIDS.
So, when her best friend Mark dies, she assumes she'll see him again. There's no way Mark wouldn't give her a chance to say goodbye, would he? But to her disappointment - and increasingly, her concern - Mark doesn't appear.
Renata has other problems, too. A mysterious, police-like force has begun ridding their East Village neighbourhood of anything abnormal or inexplicable. At first, she's sure they're scam artists, but it becomes clear they're actually trapping ghosts. With her band of lovably eccentric pals and lovers, Renata is determined to fight back against the erasure of her friends' memories and the sanitizing of her beloved New York.
Both heartbreaking and healing, tragic and triumphant, Waiting on a Friend is a magical retelling of queer history and a celebration of youth and camaraderie. With pathos and humour, empathy and an edge, Natalie Adler freshly reimagines the past for a new generation, reclaiming the spirit of resistance and determination that would become one of the era's defining legacies.
NETGALLEY READERS LOVE WAITING ON A FRIEND:
'In my top 3 reads of the year so far . . . witty and brilliant' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Genuinely an amazing book that I will definitely be recommending' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Just brilliant. This is one of the most heartfelt books I have read in a long time' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Natalie Adler pulls no punches here . . . This is without doubt going to be one of my books of the year' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'It's a really, really special book. I think everyone should read it' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Critics Review
-
Waiting on a Friend is a fun, sexy, heartbreaking, inventive whirl of a novel. Renata has always seen ghosts, and when her best friend Mark dies, she wants nothing more than to see him again. This story is a beautiful study of friendship, of how loss unmoors us, and how if we keep turning towards love, anything is possible.
Ann Napolitano
-
A charming and innovative debut, Waiting on a Friend is fresh and refreshing, both heartbreaking and uplifting. Such a pleasure to read. Natalie Adler has given us a gem
Rabih Alameddine, National Book Award finalist
-
A ghost story, a mystery, an ode to the New York City of the 1980s, a requiem for the early victims of AIDS, a celebration of queer friendship . . . This book pulses with life and exuberance amid death and loss. A riveting debut by a writer of tremendous compassion and insight
Helen Phillips, author of The Need, longlisted for the National Book Award
-
Waiting on a Friend is a breathtaking novel: candid, wickedly funny, deeply generous, and kind. Above all else it is a kind book. The plotting is intricate. The characters, moving and well-drawn. I absolutely loved it and could not stop reading
Jiaming Tang, author of Cinema Love, winner of the Lambda Literary Award
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I've read this gorgeous and heartbreaking novel a few times now (not to brag) and each time I'm completely sucked in and devastated and awash in a feeling of somebody gets it! about the moment of queer life in NYC that was ending right as I showed up in the late '80s. . . . Adler gets the feeling of the time more right than almost any historical fiction I've read about the early-middle height of AIDS in NYC
Andrea Lawlor, author of Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
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Waiting on a Friend sets a personal story of loss within the backdrop of a city still grieving those lost to AIDS. The effect is a powerful, moving story that speaks to the themes of friendship, found families, and acceptance. With resonant character work and hauntingly beautiful care for those remaining and gone, this book will linger long after the last page
Gerrard Conley, author of Boy Erased
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By turns biting and generous, funny and devastating, Waiting on a Friend evokes friendship in all its complexity-its resentments, tender obsessions, marvelous intimacies, and supernatural power
Beth Morgan, author of A Touch of Jen
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Natalie Adler is bringing one incarnation of the AIDS experience into the present where it all belongs. Someone is listening
Sarah Schulman, author of Rat Bohemia and Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP
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Waiting on a Friend is a wildly inventive and moving novel that walks a tightrope of emotion with grace and humour. It's both a portrait of a time and place-New York City in the early 1980s-and a testament to the challenge of carrying on in the face of devastating loss. Natalie Adler has written an astonishingly brilliant debut.
Patrick Ryan, New York Times bestselling author of Buckeye
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Waiting on a Friend is some of the best writing on the thorny, sexy entanglements of queer friendship I've ever read, as well as being a stylish and stubbornly political ghost story. The kind of novel that--ironically--makes you feel alive
Avery Curran
-
A perfect ghost story . . . beautiful, quietly radical, and so heartfelt it hurts
Gretchen Felker-Martin, author of Manhunt
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Adler's intimate portrayal of the period is richly detailed, both in the grim atmosphere and the city's life-affirming downtown arts community. This dazzles like a mirrorball
Publishers Weekly
-
A joy to read, Natalie Adler's evocative Waiting on a Friend offers a unique perspective on loss in a time of love
Sophie Ward
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Filled with flawed, relatable and lovable characters, Adler's work celebrates chosen family with a fresh burst of youthfulness. A story that is as equally heartbreaking as it is heartwarming, Waiting on a Friend is a triumphantly cathartic novel filled with humour, warmth, empathy, and compassion. It is a novel that reclaims the spirit of resistance that is deep-rooted in queer community.
Midlands Rainbow
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A muscled and elegant portrayal of queer community, grief and found family
GQ (The Best Books of 2026 So Far)
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A rollicking Ghostbusters-flavored mystery, a neon immersion into the gay '80s party scene, and a life-affirming case for feeling it all. "Fun," as Renata realizes, "is just as real as pain." This debut packs both in breathtaking abundance
Oprah! (Summer Books Highlight)
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Vividly and wittily capturing the sights and sounds (and other sensations) of such a specific time and place, Waiting For A Friend uses this backdrop to examine grief and loss, but also friendship, compassion and community. It's a novel written with humour, humanity and heart, while never avoiding the reality of how individuals and communities were devastated by this most terrible disease. It's as much a righteous celebration as it is a lament, and to carry off such a balancing act in this manner shows Natalie Adler to be a writer of some finesse
The Skinny
-
A magical, moving retelling of queer history
Grazia
-
It's hard to do justice to this beautiful and intimate novel about love, friendship, death and ghosts . . . A stunning debut
Daily Mail
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A loving elegy to loss, friendship and changing times . . . rooted in the deep connective tissue of love, friendship and community
Marie Claire (16 Best Books to Read This Summer)
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From shabby apartments to art experiments to filthy needles-with echoes of Patti Smith and Rebecca Makkai-Adler conjures an era of sorrow borne by too many, too young
Time (Best New Books to Read this Summer)
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Natalie Adler
- Narrator
- Dani Martineck
- Duration
- 8 hours 17 minutes
- Release Date
- 26 May 2026
- ISBN
- 9781529439090
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Quercus
- Genre
- Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Narrative theme: identity / belonging
Synopsis
'A joy to read' Sophie Ward'Funny, sexy, heartbreaking' Ann Napolitano'Wildly inventive and moving' Patrick RyanEast Village, summer of 1984. Renata is a young dyke-about-town who has the ability to see ghosts, which has been happening more and more frequently as her friends have started dying of what has recently been named AIDS. So, when her best friend Mark dies, she assumes she'll see him again. There's no way Mark wouldn't give her a chance to say goodbye, would he? But to her disappointment - and increasingly, her concern - Mark doesn't appear. Renata has other problems, too. A mysterious, police-like force has begun ridding their East Village neighbourhood of anything abnormal or inexplicable. At first, she's sure they're scam artists, but it becomes clear they're actually trapping ghosts. With her band of lovably eccentric pals and lovers, Renata is determined to fight back against the erasure of her friends' memories and the sanitizing of her beloved New York. Both heartbreaking and healing, tragic and triumphant, Waiting on a Friend is a magical retelling of queer history and a celebration of youth and camaraderie. With pathos and humour, empathy and an edge, Natalie Adler freshly reimagines the past for a new generation, reclaiming the spirit of resistance and determination that would become one of the era's defining legacies.NETGALLEY READERS LOVE WAITING ON A FRIEND:'In my top 3 reads of the year so far . . . witty and brilliant' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'Genuinely an amazing book that I will definitely be recommending' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'Just brilliant. This is one of the most heartfelt books I have read in a long time' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'Natalie Adler pulls no punches here . . . This is without doubt going to be one of my books of the year' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'It's a really, really special book. I think everyone should read it' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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