"Samuel R. Delany is not only one of the most profound and courageous writers at work today, he is a writer of seemingly limitless range."--Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of THE HOURSLike his legendary HOGG, THE MAD MAN, and the million-seller DHALGREN, Samuel R. Delany's major new novel THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE NEST OF SPIDERS--explicit, poetic, and philosophical--propels readers into a rural, gay future--with the twist that this one is supported by the homophile Kyle Foundation, started in the early 1980s by a black multi-millionaire, Robert Kyle III, to improve the lives of black gay men."One of the best novels by anyone that I have read in quite a long time. Indeed, I would go so far as to say (as I already put it on Twitter) that it is the best English-language novel that I know of, of the 21st century so far. "Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders tells the story of Eric Jeffers and his life partner Morgan 'Shit' Haskell. Eric is white, though he has been brought up mostly by his black stepfather; Shit is black, though he has been brought up mostly by his white father.

We meet Eric and Shit when they first meet, as teenagers; and we follow them for seventy years, until extreme old age. The location is a kind of backwater, a (fictional) small town on the Georgia coast, with little going on economically except for the summer tourist trade. The novel starts more or less in the present, in 2007 when Eric is just a few days shy of his 17th birthday; and it ends in the 2080s, when Eric is in his nineties. To a degree, the novel is science-fictional; we hear of future cultural ferment (the 2030s sound a lot like a freer and more advanced 1960s), of changes in social mores (though homophobia hasn't disappeared, same-sex marriages are legal everywhere, and pretty much taken for granted); of terrorist nuclear attacks, of colonies on the Moon and Mars, of gas-free automobiles, of new telepresence and virtual reality technologies, and so on. But all of this happens in the background, and only affects the main characters at second hand (as they live their lives in a backwater, and are largely unconcerned with contemporary media). The emphasis remains firmly on the uneventful happenings of everyday life."--Steven Shaviro, DeRoy Professor of English at Wayne State University"A deeply affecting chronicle of a lifelong partnership, THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE NEST OF SPIDERS is by turns generous, unsparing and bursting with life (and sex) in all its difficult, rousing, primastic splendor. A truly staggering achievement, this moving novel underscores why Delany remains essential reading and why American letters would be the poorer without him.

"--Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO.