Greenwell depicts a very complicated gay man's emotional and actual life in Bulgaria, revealing layers and layers of the protagonist's loving commitment to teaching his high school students, his self-preservation, and his abandonment to passion rooted both in self-love and self-contempt. Please don't read this and say, "Oh, all gay men are like this," because we're all individuals with our own multi-faceted histories and religious/familial/societal expectations and pressures, but I'm convinced of this character's reality and beauty. An amazingly crafted story.