For Ash, life will forever be divided into before and after.

A high school senior, Ash has recently lost his mother and been ostracized by his friends. While working on the local university’s production of Oklahoma!, Ash is slowly drawn out of his shell by Jenna, a straight-talking student reporter, and Shane, the star of the show. Shane is talented, magnetic, and
sensitive, but also fragile. As their relationship blossoms, Ash is certain they can heal each other’s wounds.

But after Shane is brutally assaulted, his death sparks a national conversation about gay rights. Jenna and Ash find themselves learning truths they’d rather not know and questioning whether they knew Shane at all.

A work of speculative historical fiction, All the Truth I Can Stand reimagines a pivotal moment from the gay rights movement of the 1990s. Author Mason Stokes explores, with great care and empathy, all the good and all the bad that can come to pass when an imperfect person is made into a symbol.

“A buoyant account of first love, made especially poignant by the brutality of what follows. All the Truth I Can Stand is riveting.”—Eliot Schrefer, National Book Award Finalist