Man*hattan: a fairy tale

Meet Michael Dearborn. Telephone therapist by day, complete and utter mess by night. It's just another New York story of boy meets boy, boy breaks up with boy, boy gets depressed, works in the basement of a funeral home, drinks too much, wakes up in a strange bed, dates a sociopath, and still makes it to brunch in time to tell the tale. Man*hattan is a fluffy yarn with some brains: chick lit meets d*ck lit meets Proust. It's a New York coming-of-age story about Michael Dearborn, a 30-something therapist looking for love in all the wrong places at the same time as he doles out telephone counseling from the basement of an Upper West Side funeral home. Man*hattan is a fairy tale in more ways than one, following our little boy lost as he navigates the treacherous seas of young gay life in Manhattan, searching for the happy ending he hopes is still out there.

Philip Higgins is a licensed clinical social worker in Massachusetts. He lives there with his husband - whom he met, dated and, when he finally came to his senses, married in Manhattan - and their two adorable sons in a great big old house they never could have afforded in New York City.