Allister and Gede’s retirement plan: savor their remaining years on the pond behind their home and enjoy the visiting birds and butterflies while drinking tea in Gede’s garden. Together they experience their final challenge—Allister’s journey into dementia, where the fragments of a life become a masterpiece of love.
In the quiet of their Georgia garden, Allister remembers his life—a career teaching literature at Columbia, decades together with Gede in New York City, traveling the world, to Rome, to Venice, to London, and so many places with lifelong dear friends—the only way he can: in fragments.
As Allister’s lucid moments give way to those of confusion and loss, decimating a lifetime of memories, Gede transforms from lover and husband to witness and caregiver. Through this last passage of their life together, both men discover an even deeper meaning of love.
Allister’s final journey leaves the reader glad to have known Allister and Gede. This gentle story promises wisdom at the center of extreme pain. It paints a portrait of a man who loved and was loved by the people in his life. Love being the last thing to be forgotten.
A portion of the proceeds from Shards go to SAGE. Since 1978, SAGE has led the way in advocating for policies, services, and resources that empower LGBTQ+ elders to live openly and authentically.
Gregory A. Kompes
What people are saying about Shards:
“Brilliant. In Shards, Kompes explores sharp, deeply-touching slivers of life through Allister’s blurring lens. A first in queer literature, and his finest work.”
“The title of this novel perfectly captures its ethos. Beautiful fragments of a life well lived spread out for the reader to assemble like a broken china tea pot. Bittersweet, lyrical, and poignant, Shards invites readers to savor one man’s life through glimpses of his past and memories of the people who populated it. Allister’s life unfolds like a recipe for treasuring the moments that quietly pass most people by.”
“A beautifully written homage to love, memory, and friendship as the narrator looks back on the loves of his life and the lives of his loves. In short vignettes, our narrator takes us gently by the hand to view his life’s journey, then eases us along to the present where his life is now one precious day and one precious memory at a time. A lovely book.”
“A must-read for patients and caregivers, Shards is a compelling montage of fragmented yet rich moments in the life of a well-traveled professor. Tender and deeply moving, it explores the fragile balance between holding on and letting go, and the quiet, aching dignity Allister discovers in the final stages of memory loss.”
“In snippets of seemingly warped time, Gregory Kompes expertly depicts the chronological progression of dementia as the past bleeds into the present and memories of fact and fiction fade one into the other until both disappear. Yet, at the center, at its very core, Shards is a beautifully rendered love story.”