Virtual Lesbian Library is our new monthly reading club hosted over Google Meet every second Friday of the month at 6pm.

Join our Discord to take part in book club discussions throughout the month.

Oranges are Not the Only Fruit

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For our first month we are reading Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson.

This is a semi-autobiographical novel published in 1985 based on the author’s life in a Pentecostal Christian family during the 60s and 70s, up until the point she came out as a lesbian and left home.
It is a coming of age story with much of it written as a stream of consciousness of the author’s daily life until around halfway through when she starts to notice her sexuality due to meeting a girl in her town. The story deals with themes of adoption, religion, discovering sexuality, religious homophobia and coming out.

We thought this would be a good book to start our book club with as it is a modern LGBT classic and is very short. It can be read in an afternoon so is not a huge commitment for those who are busy and don’t have much time to read. There are eight chapters so if you read two a week you will have it finished within the month.

Due to the time period of the events, there is some racist language, including references to Christian missionaries travelling to Africa to convert the heathen, but this is not the main theme of the book and is important to understanding the type of religious environment the protagonist was raised in and their attitude to outsiders.

Where can I read it?

A free PDF of the book is available HERE and is also available on the Open Library for free in one hour reading sessions.
Or if you want a physical copy, it can usually be found on eBay for £2-£5 or a copy may be available at your local library.