Summary/Annotation ->  David Leavitt's extraordinary first novel, now reissued in paperback, is a seminal work about family, sexual identity, home, and loss. Set in the 1980s against the backdrop of a swiftly gentrifying Manhattan, The Lost Language of Cranes tells the story of twenty-five-year-old Philip, who realizes he must come out to his parents after falling in love for the first time with a man. Philip's parents are facing their own crisis: pressure from developers and the loss of their longtime home. But the real threat to this family is Philip's father's own struggle with his latent homosexuality, realized only in his Sunday afternoon visits to gay porn theaters. Philip's admission to his parents and his father's hidden life provoke changes that forever alter the landscape of their worlds. David Leavittis the author of several novels, includingThe Body of Jonah Boyd,While England Sleeps, andEqual Affections, as well as three volumes of short stories that make up his recently publishedCollected Stories. His nonfiction books includeFlorence, A Delicate Case. A recipient of fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, he teaches in the Creative Writing program at the University of Florida. Set in the 1980s against the backdrop of a swiftly gentrifying Manhattan, David Leavitt's extraordinary first novel tells the story of twenty-five-year-old Philip, who decides that he must come out to his parents, Owen and Rose, after he falls in love, for the first time, with a man. Meanwhile Owen and Rose are facing their own crisis: the conversion of their apartment building from a rental to a co-op means that they may lose their longtime home. Yet the greater threat to the family's security is Owen's unspoken desire for other men, indulged for years in Sunday afternoon visits to a gay porn theater. Philip's decision to come out to his parents jolts Owen out of his complacency, altering forever the terms of his life and his marriage. "An amazingly perceptive novel."--San Francisco Chronicle "Leavitt catches beautifully the terror and passion of new love."--Dorothy Allison,The Village Voice "A brilliant, wise first novel . . . The delight of the book is Leavitt's style . . . [The novel] flashes with pathos, anger, and camp wit; it rises to a subtle urban lyricism."--Vogue "Fascinating . . . Leavitt's sense of pacing, his graceful sentences, and his storytelling ability dovetail nicely."--Philip Lopate,The New York Times Book Review