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Book synopsis

A literary, mythic queer love story of grief, healing and forbidden desire set in Joseon-era Korea.

As war closes in on Kiyun's isolated farm, he leaves his front door open and waits for the inevitable.

But what crosses his threshold one cold autumn night is not an army. It is one of the war's wounded: a silent, fevered stranger dressed like a warrior, with a sword at his side. He should be a threat. Yet his wounds have left him unable to survive without Kiyun's care.

While tending to him, Kiyun remains wary of the danger flickering in the man's eyes, where black nearly swallows the white. But as the stranger recovers, he proves disarmingly free of shame or pretence. He watches. He learns. He stays. And in the silence between them, something Kiyun had thought long dead begins to stir within him.

Touch becomes language. Care turns into longing, and longing deepens into a fierce, sensual intimacy neither man has words for. But the deeper their bond grows, the harder it becomes for Kiyun to keep the past buried, or to ignore the darkness that followed the stranger to his door.

Blending literary fiction, historical fantasy and Korean folklore, First Light is a mythic queer love story about grief, forbidden desire and the unexpected second chances that make life worth wanting again.

For readers drawn to the aching devotion of The Song of Achilles, the sensual introspection of Call Me by Your Name, and the queer mythmaking of The Spear Cuts Through Water.

Book details

• Full title: First Light
• Author: Frouke van Es
• Language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 132
• EAN: 9789083732503
• ISBN: 9083732509
• ID: 53015595
• Publisher: Typefate
• Weight: 139 g
• Dimensions: 203 × 127 × 8 mm
• Date of publishing: 24. June 2026

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