Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took hold, but the answer was patently clear the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father, despite his hard-won citizenship, Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.
Malinda Lo’s historical teen fiction novel is written with a knowing, gentle hand that balances Lily’s unease and courage. This is must-read love story in an uncommon setting: 1950s San Francisco, at a time when racism, homophobia, and McCarthyism held tight grips on the citizenry. Despite winning numerous awards and honours, Last Night at the Telegraph Club was flagged for removal from school libraries due to its depiction of female homosexuality. When collecting the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature in 2021, Lo condemned this move, urging the audience to show their support to “keep our stories on the shelves. Don’t let them erase us.“
Lo, M. (2021). Last Night at the Telegraph Club. Hodder & Staughton.