Good Morning Moon

The bestselling poet, novelist, and biographer focuses his keen eye inward in this luminous memoir about the decision to start a family later in life only to be surprised by revelations from his own childhood.

In a unique latticework of a memoir, Brad Gooch paints an indelible portrait of becoming a father in middle age. Having experienced once unfathomable changes in what it means to be gay in American society, having lived through the AIDS crisis in New York and surviving the death of his first great love, Brad wasn’t longing for a conventional family life.

But in late middle age, he meets Paul, marries, and together they take the leap, soon having two boys through surrogacy. As with many new parents, the arrival of children spurs a reflection on his own upbringing as an only child in a comfortable town in Pennsylvania, and a mystery hidden in plain sight that only a DNA test can solve.

Pondering fundamental questions about the nature of family, while capturing the joys, humor, and hardship of raising kids, Good Morning Moon is an unforgettable addition to the literature of parenthood.