About Lamb by Troy Ford
A haunting, heart-rending debut told through fragments—letters, journals, stories, and memory—Lamb is a raw and lyrical coming-of-age novel that speaks to anyone who’s ever loved someone who slipped just out of reach.
When D’s enigmatic best friend, Lamb, disappears just before they’re meant to move in together, grief leaves a ghost. Years later, uncovering Lamb’s journals unspools a kaleidoscopic portrait of a queer punk misfit—equal parts tenderness and rebellion—set against the backdrop of elite schools, underground San Francisco, and the shadow of the AIDS crisis.
Told in a deeply intimate voice that echoes A Little Life, Tales of the City, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Troy Ford’s Lamb is a love letter to youth, friendship, queer identity, and the ache of unfinished stories.
With literary precision and emotional vulnerability, Ford crafts a mosaic of two lives bound by memory, art, and the search for belonging.
Early readers say:
“A whispered secret, drawing you in with its quiet confidence and emotional depth.”
“This story broke my heart a little, but in the best way.”
“So well crafted with humor, grit, and heart.”
“One of those rare books that sneaks up on you.”
“A queer slice of life. Heartbreakingly lovely.”
“Something rare and quietly extraordinary… one of those books that doesn’t just entertain for a season, it puts down roots.”
This is a rare debut: experimental in form, devastating in feeling, and unforgettable in its quiet power. Perfect for fans of hybrid storytelling, LGBTQ+ literary fiction, and emotionally rich narratives of friendship and loss.
For fans of: Ocean Vuong, Hanya Yanagihara, Armistead Maupin, Douglas Stuart, and Andrew Sean Greer.
99 cents through 8/10/25.
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Author Bio:
Troy Ford is an author and editor, and the publisher of two popular newsletters: the writing-focused Ford Knows Books, and Qstack, an LGBTQIA+ Directory, Platform, and Community of newsletter writers and readers. As a creator and advocate, his mission is to give voice to queer people and issues by promoting their visibility through media projects and collaborations, and through his own fiction and essays.
His short film “Unsung: Queer Portraits of Authenticity and the Cost of Its Absence” won the OurPride 2025 Innovative Storytelling Award. He has been published in Writers Digest, Unstamatic, Bewildering Stories, and others.
Troy’s writing explores the joy and pain of queerness through the lens of gay men who struggle in a world that views their lives as other and less than. His themes include love and sex, friendship and family, growing up and bullying, substance abuse and self-destructiveness – all with a touch of humor to lighten otherwise difficult topics.
A native Californian, he grew up overseas in the Middle East and eventually settled in the San Francisco/Bay Area where he earned a B.A. in Rhetoric from UC Berkeley. Since 2019, he has lived in Sitges, Spain with his husband and AmStaff Terrier.