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WINNER 2024 Fred Kerner Award, Canadian Authors Association 

“From the opening sentence we know we’re in the hands of a master craftsman. This novel opens up through multiple, connected points of view into a landscape that’s deeply problematic: from the damaged father, through the gay son who refuses to accept the deal he’s been dealt, to the sister who propelled them into this abyss. Trauma impacts them all in unexpected and illuminating ways. Challenging and poignant, but ultimately joyful.”

2024 Emerging Writer Prize, shortlist
Rakuten Kobo 

With the Emerging Writer Prize, Rakuten Kobo endeavours to raise the profiles of Canadian writers by recognizing exceptional books written by first-time authors in three categories: Literary Fiction, Nonfiction, and this year’s genre category, Mystery. The winning authors were announced on June 18, 2024 and were awarded a $10,000 cash prize.

A 2023 Fiction Book of the Year
49th Shelf

It's been another incredible year of Canadian books, more than a single person could ever hope to read, let alone encapsulate in a list. But we've done our best with this list of fiction, a list that only just begins to reflect that fascinating work taking place on the CanLit scene with a wide range of mood, genre, and literary approaches, proving that Canadian fiction has something to offer to every kind of reader. { MORE }

Reviews

The Pains and Struggles of Family in Three Debuts
The New York Times, Kia Corthron

Eminently accomplished, [and] often deliciously droll… Children can be cruel, but what happens when a child’s taunting of her brother on one ordinary afternoon sets in motion the destruction of a family? The novel asks provocative questions: At what age are we wholly accountable for our actions? To what degree do we hold a traumatized person responsible for perpetuating harm? { MORE }

Dreaming Home by Lucian Childs
Quill & Quire, Shawn Syms

Coming out isn’t always easy. And it isn’t always by choice. One encounter on a fateful afternoon leads to a lifetime of alienation and discontent for Kyle Turner, the central character in this debut novel by Lucian Childs. In elegant, emotionally resonant prose, Childs creates a nuanced and sensitive portrait of a life shaped by loss, abandonment, and generational trauma. { MORE }

Dreaming Home by Lucian Childs
Prairie Fire, Will Fawley

The language is sparse, yet beautifully written, illuminating brief moments and observations that root you to the lives and experiences of these characters, making them vivid and real…The characters really feel alive and make you want to root for them. Though it tackles heavy themes, Dreaming Home is always a delight to read, and leaves the reader with a sense of hope, serving as a reminder that even through pain, there is still beauty in the world, in ourselves, and in each other. { MORE }

Dreaming Home by Lucian Childs
The Ottawa Review of Books, Timothy Niedermann

Childs is an excellent writer, with a keen ear for dialogue and great skill in depicting the complexities of emotional conflict…. And he sensitively portrays gay life without glossing over its seamier side, allowing him to sympathetically evoke the turbulent emotional lives of these characters. What Childs does not do is tie things up neatly. His characters are living souls, and life being what it is, they will continue to struggle to find happiness { MORE }

Affliction and Love: A Bitingly Self-Aware Debut
The Miramichi Reader, Sarah Marie

Childs’ ruthlessly genuine depiction of Kyle through these narratives is illustrative of a smart and thoughtful engagement with the simultaneity of a person whose sense of self is moulded by their suffering. Dreaming Home is a well-developed exploration into family, attachments, and the significance of being denied any sense of psychological safety. Or, rather, the possibility of home. { MORE }

Dreaming Home by Lucian Childs
The Maple Tree Literary Supplement, Candace Fertile

Toronto writer Lucian Childs’ debut novel could be read as a cautionary tale of what happens when a family is subjugated to the homophobic views of the father, a deeply religious Vietnam vet who fails to see the potential destruction of his decisions. Told in six chapters from different points of view and moving through time, the novel revolves around Kyle, who in 1977 is fifteen years old.  { MORE, scroll toward bottom of page }

Dreaming Home by Lucian Childs
Southern Booksellers Review, Sam Edge

An absorbing tale that begins with a single, terrible act of violence a father unleashes upon his son before tracing the ripple of that act as it courses over many lives across decades. Structurally, the novel is quite unique; nearly every named character in the novel, all of them affected in some way by this act of violence, have their perspectives shared with us. Childs’s precise writing makes their anguish and their frustration feel so real despite the short time we spend viewing the story through each character’s eyes. A queer coming-of-age story for the ages.

Review of Dreaming Home
Goodreads, Ed Seaward

Toronto author (by way of Texas and Alaska) Lucian Childs’s debut Dreaming Home is a book comprised of six chapters which were originally conceived as short stories. Over the last few years Lucian has re-shaped and connected them with overlaps and through lines until what emerges is a 'novel-in-stories', unique and powerful in structure. { MORE }

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Interviews

49 Writers
The Active Voice

In this episode, host Katie Bausler chats with Lucian Childs, author of Dreaming Home, a powerful collection of six linked short stories on the outing of a gay teenager by his younger sister, his father’s violent reaction and how that trauma ripples through the course of four decades.

Ivory Tower Boiler Room

A conversation with Dr. Andrew Rimby about Dreaming Home and some of the social issues tackled in the book: conversion therapy, childhood trauma, queer youth homelessness.

7 Minutes in Book Heaven
This Queer Book Saved My Life

Join J.P. Der Boghossian and Lucian Childs as they talk about Dreaming Home. In this fun interview you’ll find out Lucian’s celebrity crush, his favourite sentence from a novel, the best sentence he’s ever written, the best romantic scene he’s ever read, as well as the worst writing advice he’s ever gotten.

On Writing a Funny (and Moving) Book about Grief, Trauma, & Queer Coming of Age
Open Book

Juggling six different points of view and forty years of cultural history would be an impressive feat for a seasoned novelist, but Lucian Childs managed to pull it off—with style, humour, and pathos—in his debut, the buzzed-about novel-in-linked-stories Dreaming Home (Biblioasis). A far-ranging tale that ties together AIDs-era San Francisco and the experience of the queer community there with the story of a family fractured by trauma, Dreaming Home is a book that balances skill and heart… { MORE }

The Chat with Lucian Childs
The 49th Shelf, Trevor Corkum

Write an acclaimed debut at (a very young!) 74 years? Heck yeah! We're thrilled to interview Lucian Childs today on The Chat! His novel-in-stories is Dreaming Home (Biblioasis), a tender and powerful queer coming-of-age that spans forty years and multiple cities. { MORE }

Alaska Book Week

Beginning a Literary Career Later in Life
The common wisdom is that you are too old to begin a literary career past the age of forty. Lucian Childs has proven this not to be so. He recently published his debut novel, Dreaming Home (Biblioasis 2023), at the age of seventy-four. Together with moderator Martha Amore (In the Quiet Season & Other Stories 2018), Lucian will discuss the unique challenges and opportunities for older writers. For more Alaska Book Week events, click here.

Howl
Radio CIUT 89.5FM, Valentino Assenza

HOWL host Valentino Assenza interviews Lucian on his debut novel, Dreaming Home. Valentino is a gracious radio host and interviewer. Their discussion about the book was insightful and a lot of fun. Backgrounding the interview is their shared love for the English electronic music duo, Groove Armada. Also on the show country rock singer Bree Taylor talking about her new single “Dauntless.” { MORE }

Launch event
Queen Books, Lee Parpart

On June 1, Biblioasis and Queen Books celebrated Dreaming Home by Lucian Childs. Lucian’s selections from his debut work were complemented with readings by poet and host Lee Parpart. Afterward, Lee led a discussion about the novel’s unique structure and genesis, before opening up the program to a lively Q & A. { MORE }

Book Lists

A 2023 Fiction Book of the Year
49th Shelf

It's been another incredible year of Canadian books, more than a single person could ever hope to read, let alone encapsulate in a list. But we've done our best with this list of fiction, a list that only just begins to reflect that fascinating work taking place on the CanLit scene with a wide range of mood, genre, and literary approaches, proving that Canadian fiction has something to offer to every kind of reader.

Top reads for Pride month: where we’ve been, what we’ve achieved and what we are fighting for
The Toronto Star

Dreaming Home, by Lucian Childs | It takes a special book for me to detour from non-fiction, and Childs’ debut novel certainly meets the criteria. “Dreaming Home” is a reminder that intergenerational trauma and the coming out journey make for a challenging and uncomfortable path. Along the way are brushes with history (San Francisco in the 1980s) and adversarial characters (a betraying sister and extravagant mother). While a fictional take, any of us could have lived it.

39 fiction and non-fiction books to read this spring
The Globe and Mail

Dreaming Home, Lucian Childs | This queer coming-of-age, told as a series of interlinked stories from six points of view over a 40-year period, is based in part on the author’s experiences in AIDS-era San Francisco. American-born, Toronto-based Lucian Childs, as you’ll glean from that last detail, came of age some time ago, but is still embracing new rites of passage: Though his stories have appeared in literary journals since the early aughts, he’s making his book-publishing debut at the tender age of 74.

Spring reads to put on your radar
The 49th Shelf

There's something for every kind of leader in this round-up of acclaimed novels and short story collections that deserve to be on your radar.

Dreaming Home, Lucian Childs | When a sister’s casual act of betrayal awakens their father’s demons—ones spawned by his time in Vietnamese POW camps—the effects of the ensuing violence against her brother ripple out over the course of forty years, from Killeen, to San Francisco, to Fort Lauderdale. { MORE }

29 exciting new books out today!
Literary Hub

“Dreaming Home is the propulsive tale of how one act of cruelty can reverberate through many lives and for many decades. Childs intricately and carefully brings to life the constellation of characters who circle around Kyle and his queer coming of age. Dreaming Home poses brilliant and important questions, forcing the reader to consider the power we have over one another and the twisted and painful paths life can take toward joy.”—Lydia Conklin

June’s most anticipated LGBTQ+ Books
Lambda Literary Review

Aaaand it’s that time of year again! As the rainbow paraphernalia officially hits Target and everyone under the (at times sweltering) sun begins prepping their floats and their costumes, so do the shelves of your local bookstores’ queer section creak under the weight of all the new titles released just in time for Pride. { MORE }

21 LGBTQ+ Books for Pride Month
Everything Zoomer

Publishing his first novel at 74, this coming-of-age debut by American-born, Toronto-based Childs (an acclaimed short story writer) spans four decades and takes place across Florida, Texas and AIDS-era San Francisco as it explores the legacy of trauma in a Texas family. The six linked sections are each told from a separate point of view.

Books to Celebrate in June 2023
Southern Review of Books

A queer coming-of-age, and coming-to-terms, and a poignant exploration of all the ways we search for home, Dreaming Home is the unforgettable story of the fragmenting of an American family.

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Author Testimonials

DREAMING HOME  IS NOTHING SHORT OF A CONJURING ACT. In Kyle, Lucian Childs has created a living, suffering man out of negative space. Yet we come to know him, and feel for him, thanks to the cast of funny and flawed characters whose lives he touches. Through their love, exasperation, and remorse, the void that is Kyle miraculously takes on its human shape. Entertaining and wise, Dreaming Home is a wonderful debut.—Caroline Adderson, author of Bad Imaginings and A History of Forgetting

DREAMING HOME  IS THE PROPULSIVE TALE of how one act of cruelty can reverberate through many lives and for many decades. Childs intricately and carefully brings to life the constellation of characters who circle around Kyle and his queer coming of age. Dreaming Home poses brilliant and important questions, forcing the reader to consider the power we have over one another and the twisted and painful paths life can take toward joy.—Lydia Conklin, author of Rainbow Rainbow

BOTH INTIMATE AND FAR-REACHING, DREAMING HOME  MOVINGLY EXPLORES HOW PEOPLE CHANGE, and how they don’t; how they heal, and how they can’t…or maybe still can. There is seemingly no life Childs can’t dream his way into, and every character in this beautiful book is drawn with empathy and tenderness.—Caitlin Horrocks, author of Life Among the Terranauts and The Vexations

IN DREAMING HOME, LUCIAN CHILDS CONSTRUCTS, FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES, THE LIFE OF KYLE —a young gay man traumatized early in life, first by his father and then conversion therapy—who is searching for, as the title suggests, that most elusiveness of things: home. As he takes us from Texas to San Francisco to Florida, Childs brings it all—compelling prose, first-rate storytelling, and a bittersweet and utterly affecting renegotiation of the meaning of family.—Lori Ostlund, author of After the Parade and The Bigness of the World; Series Editor, Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction

THE MARVEL OF CHILDS’ BOOK IS ITS SHARP, HEARTBREAKING EXAMINATION OF THE TRUE GRAVITY OF TRAUMA, extending beyond just the traumatized individual to the friends, family, and lovers beside us. In these six dazzling, entwined stories he maps their orbits around their damaged polestar. Because of this, it’s their collective story—each character’s voice amplifying the others—that glows the brightest.—Patrick Earl Ryan, author of the Flannery O’Connor Award winning story collection If We Were Electric

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