“Last Night at the Telegraph Club” is a novel written by Malinda Lo, and tells the story about a young Chinese girl called Lily Hu living in San Francisco during the 1950s. The novel is a young adult fiction heavily leaning on romance.
The main character is shown discovering herself and her sexuality despite all the odds being against her, and her successfully living completely true to herself. She develops a close friendship with a girl at school called Kath, but soon discovers that her feeling go beyond that, and learns of her attraction to women. Lily’s new discovered sense of self and sexual orientation clashes with the traditional, conservative ways of her family, which ends up separating her from Kath.
The novel explores themes of sexuality and self discovery, tradition and growth, and, most importantly, love. It was published in 2021 and was well received, winning a National Book Award.
