Gay Uncle Patrick is coming back.
Author Steven Rowley will publish a sequel to his bestselling novel The Guncle next year. G.P. Putnam's Sons says the new book, The Guncle Abroad, is “about the complicated bonds of family, love, and what it takes to rediscover yourself, even at the ripe age of fifty.”
The Guncle, published in 2021, followed Patrick O’Hara, a caftan-loving, gay Palm Springs sitcom star who temporarily serves as caretaker for his niece and nephew after their mother dies and their father enters rehab for substance use disorder. A critic for Kirkus called the book, which won the Thurber Prize for American Humor, “a novel with some real depth beneath all its witty froth.”
In The Guncle Abroad, Patrick, now starring in a new sitcom and reeling from a breakup, travels to Italy for a family wedding, drawn by the promise of seeing his niece and nephew again.
Rowley announced his new novel on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “Patrick is back,” the author said in a video. “It’s been five years, and he’s trading in his martini for a spritz, and Palm Springs for an Italian adventure with the kids.”
The Guncle Abroad is slated for publication on May 21, 2024.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
