How We Named the Stars : One of the Observer's 2024 Top Ten Debuts

Hearing you say my name was a way of seeing myself as I had never seen myself you gave my name new meaning, new weight.

Nerdy and shy, scholarship student Daniel de La Luna arrives at college nervous to meet his golden-haired, athletic roommate, whose Facebook photos depict a boy just like those who made Daniels school years hell.

Sam Morris is not what he had imagined, though. As the two settle into college life they drink tequila under the stars, go on long runs through snow-covered hills, explore freshmannightlife, and inch closer until they find themselves in love.

But their blissful first year is over all too soon. Daniels summer in his ancestral homeland of Mxico becomes a rollercoaster of revelations, before his life is brutally upended by the unimaginable.

How We Named the Starsis atale oflove, heartache and learning to honour the dead.Daniel and Sam will leave you forever changed.