ARMY OF LOVERS CANNOT FAIL

A friendship is a filiation we choose It holds love and laughter it can extend our sense of the possible Moved to honour a form of relation often subordinated to romantic and familial ties and to explore a part of her own history Hélène Giannecchini pieces together an alternative genealogy of queer ancestors In searching and sensitive prose she sifts the past to bring existences deemed marginal into communion with each other traces of which may remain only in memory and archival fragments Roving from Casa Susanna a space of freedom from persecution in McCarthyite North America to the diary of a man living with HIV in France and to the life and work of pioneering lesbian photographer Donna Gottschalk each narrative counters oblivion through loving acts of witness A slantwise gathering of queer life and activism in the twentieth century interspersed with images encountered by chance An Army of Lovers Cannot Fail establishes friendship as a vital political force and offers a moving testament to its liberatory power