Our Evenings

Our Evenings is the seventh novel by renowned British novelist Alan Hollinghurst, who won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2004 for The Line of Beauty. Hollinghurst’s work has been instrumental in propelling gay fiction into the literary mainstream.

Our Evenings follows the life of David Win, a gay actor of Black and white ancestry. Set in England and stretching over a period of 54 years, from 1962 to 2016, with a Coda set in 2020, the novel explores racial prejudice, gay romantic partnerships, and British class structure, chronicling the many social changes that took place in England over this time.

This guide refers to the Random House 2024 edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness, death, racism, antigay bias, bullying, sexual content, substance use, and cursing.

Plot Summary

In a Prologue set in 2016, narrator David “Dave” Win recalls his wealthy benefactor, Mark Hadlow, who has just died.

The novel then flashes back to 1962. Thirteen-year-old Dave attends the all-boys Bampton School on a scholarship funded by Mark, whose son Giles is a bully. Dave lives with his dressmaker mother, Avril, in nearby Foxleigh. His father was from Burma (now known as Myanmar).