A Home at the End of the World

This article is about the novel. For the film, see A Home at the End of the World (film).

A Home at the End of the World

First edition cover
Author	Michael Cunningham
Country	United States
Language	English
Publisher	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date	November 7, 1990
Media type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages	344 pp
ISBN	0-374-17250-1
OCLC	22309642
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 20
LC Class	PS3553.U484 H66 1990

A Home at the End of the World is a 1990 novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Michael Cunningham.

The book is narrated in the first person, with the narrator changing in each chapter. Bobby and Jonathan are the main narrators, but several chapters are narrated by Alice, Jonathan's mother, and Clare. An excerpt from A Home at the End of the World was published in The New Yorker, chosen for Best American Short Stories 1989, and featured on NPR's Selected Shorts.

Plot summary

Bobby had grown up in a home in suburban Cleveland, Ohio during the 1960s and 1970s where partying and drugs were a recurring theme. He has already witnessed the death of his mother and beloved older brother by the time he befriends Jonathan, who comes from a sheltered family. After Bobby finds his father is dead, Jonathan's family takes him in.

Bobby and Jonathan become best friends, and also experiment sexually. The two eventually lose touch, but meet up again in their 20s in 1980s New York, where Bobby moves in with Jonathan and his eccentric roommate Clare. Clare had planned to have a baby with Jonathan (who is openly gay), but Bobby and Clare become lovers, while Jonathan still has feelings for Bobby. Clare and Bobby have a baby and move to a country home together with Jonathan.

The trio form their own unusual family, questioning traditional definitions of family and love, while dealing with the complications of their love triangle.

Film adaptation

Cunningham adapted his novel for a 2004 film with the same title.