Last Night at the Telegraph Club

By: Malinda Lo

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

Acclaimed author of Ash Malinda Lo returns with her most personal and ambitious novel yet, a gripping story of love and duty set in San Francisco's Chinatown during the 1950s.

"That book. It was about two women, and they fell in love with each other." And then Lily asked the question that had taken root in her, that was even now unfurling its leaves and demanding to be shown the sun: "Have you ever heard of such a thing?"

Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can't remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club.

America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father - despite his hard-won citizenship - Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.

This audiobook includes a PDF of the bibliography and acknowledgments from the book.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Malinda Lo (P)2021 Listening Library

Critic reviews

Winner of the National Book Award

Winner of the Stonewall Book Award

Winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature

A Michael L. Printz Honor Book

A We Need Diverse Books

Walter Dean Myers Honor Book

A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist

"Lo's writing, restrained yet luscious, shimmers with the thrills of youthful desire. A lovely, memorable novel about listening to the whispers of a wayward heart and claiming a place in the world."—Sarah Waters, international bestselling and award winning author of Tipping the Velvet and The Night Watch

"Exquisite and heart-shattering, Last Night at the Telegraph Club made me ache with wishing. This book is for anyone who has ever loved—in any sense of the word."—Emily X.R. Pan, New York Times bestselling author of The Astonishing Color of After

"Lo beckons readers, sentence by restrained sentence, into this incandescent novel of queer possibility."—National Book Award Winner Citation

Very sweet and pure love story

I loved this story and the characters. Thought it was a very sweet and honest discovery of love for another person. Love is love. I found myself becoming very emotional at the end of the story and so glad that there was hope for the ability of these characters to continue to explore their relationship.

could not stop listening

I have attention issues that make reading and listening to fiction difficult but the story and the narrator were both so good that I couldn't stop listening and was eager to get back to it whenever I had to stop. This is a great queer coming of age story and queer bipoc and bipoc story. Could really help queer youth know they're normal and help non-queer youth know that lgbtq people are just like them.

Simply excellent…

I am so glad I stumbled across this book…it is an amazing story…personally I knew of some of the struggles that the gay and lesbian community had to endure…but this book has given me a whole new appreciation of them… my hat is off to the author for this excellent book…

Amazing!

This book was amazing! I haven’t read many historical fiction but I’m so glad I picked up this. Once I realized it was Emily Woo Zeller I was immediately excited, I love her audiobooks. I also knew I wanted to read Malinda Lo’s books, as whenever I google things like “sapphic young adult fantasies” her books come up. But anyway, this book was really special. Mostly it was joyous, but then it hurt, yes it hurt, but I loved it. If you like ya queer contemporary books you’ll probably like this as it felt similar, but in the 1950s. I really liked the protagonist. I also liked the historical tidbits, but I mean I was a history major, specifically one that took many Chinese history classes, so that makes sense. Anyway read this book!

Slow but pretty good

I had really high hopes, and while it was good, it didn’t live up to the expectations.

Should be considered a great American novel

I’ve been recommending this book to EVERYONE. I cried I laughed and these characters have stuck with me. Their lives are so actualized I felt all their pain and love. Will be listening again

beautiful and well researched

loved being able to peek into a history not often included in queer history. so good!

Well worth the listen

This was really well written and really allowed the reader to gain more insight about the protagonist and her experience living in San Francisco in the 50’s. The invitation into her family, the historical context of her experience as a first generation Chinese American woman and the loving touches about the city made the book feel important and intimate. The character development was also great. I definitely recommend this, particularly if you enjoy historical fiction.

Excellent story

Well written lesbian coming out story from an teen Asian American perspective set in San Francisco in the 1950’s.

Amazing Story/History

The story maybe fiction but it felt like a story young lesbian or just anyone with a coming out story can relate to. Great history Chinese culture and women fight to be more than what the world see them as.