💔 Why You’ll Love This Book
📚 Literary fiction rooted in queer experience
🗞️ Set against real headlines: Roe v. Wade, Vietnam, Skylab & more.
🧠 Raw, lyrical prose for fans of Boy Swallows Universe
👁️ A story about shame, resilience, and what it means to be seen
🌊 A river scene you’ll remember forever
✏️ A boy who writes himself into existence
💬 Reader Praise
“What Rowan does with characters should be studied.” — Kevin
“Cruel and honest in a way I wasn’t ready for. Now I can’t stop thinking about him.” — Nico Lover
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1973
By R. J. Thornwell
Book 1 in the Christian Tambor Series
🖤 A Queer Coming-of-Age That Doesn’t Want Your Permission. Just Your Attention.
1973 is a quiet gut-punch of a novel for readers who understand that some truths live in silence. And some boys don’t come of age, they survive it.
If you grew up too fast.
If your body betrayed you before you had words.
If poetry ever felt like the only safe place.
This book is yours.
📚 The Story
Christian Tambor is thirteen the summer America pulls out of Vietnam and Roe v. Wade makes history. But in Wagga, Australia, nothing changes, except everything.
His birthday brings no cake. Just a cracked plate of toast and the weight of a belt that waits.
But then Mary arrives. Loud, freckled, impossible.
Then Jesse: careless, golden, untouchable.
And suddenly, Christian’s days are not just about surviving—they’re about noticing.
He notices the river. The books. The quiet ache of being looked at too long.
He starts writing the things he can’t say.
And he learns that growing up queer, poor, and invisible in 1970s rural Australia isn’t about becoming a man.
It’s about deciding what kind of boy you’re allowed to be.
Even when no one is watching.
🖤 Final Note
This isn’t a trauma narrative.
It’s a love letter to the ones who made it anyway.
Quiet boys. Sharp girls. Bruised families. And the small, stubborn hope that survives under it all.
You’ll read it slow.
You’ll carry it with you.
And you’ll remember Christian Tambor’s name.
🔗 Ready for More?
Book 2 1974 releases Late 2025.