A MAN AND HIS PRIDE

Sometimes life can be hard – until the right person shows you the way.

Despite coming out years ago, twenty-six-year-old Sean Preston has never been one to shout his sexuality from the rooftops. When his relationship of three months comes to a humiliating end, he vows never to become emotionally attached again, falling into a cycle of hook-ups, booze and an unrelenting gym routine.

The rest of Sean's life isn't panning out how he hoped either. His job as an online troll moderator is testing his mental health, his best friend and former girlfriend still resents him for coming out, and even his own mother seems to blame him for a tragedy that tore their family apart. But it is his surprising connection with an eighty-seven-year-old nursing home resident that pushes his identity crisis to the brink.

Then Sean meets naive but kind nurse William, and an unlikely friendship blossoms. William is shy and inexperienced when it comes to the gay dating scene, and Sean offers to show him the way – but it turns out William has a few unexpected life lessons to offer in return . . . and when it comes to forgiveness and self-love, Sean has a lot to learn.

Set in Brisbane during Australia's 2017 same-sex marriage plebiscite, A Man and His Pride is an exuberant and deeply moving story that celebrates some of the many ways to be gay, and shows that finding your pride is a journey – one you cannot take alone.

Luke Rutledge has worked as a communications specialist since 2014. He studied journalism and professional writing, editing and publishing at the Queensland University of Technology. Before that, he studied music at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, where he majored in classical flute. A Man and His Pride is his debut novel.