The Easterners — Kathleen Ryan

The Easterners is set in Boston during the winter of 1877. Harvard student Tom Flynn can no longer cope with the pressure of keeping his homosexuality hidden from his peers and professors. Escaping college, Tom and classmate Aven leave Boston and travel through America's industrialized cities and immigrant slums at a time when few had rights and many faced poverty and desperation. The Easterners is a journey into Victorian America as seen through the eyes of the novel's characters.