Imagine a cross between the complex characterizations and relationships of a Michael Chabon novel with the epic natural supernaturalism of Neil Gaiman and you’ll get a sense of the novelty of The Glittering World, the thrilling debut from gay author Robert Levy.

The novel follows Blue, a former club kid turned Brooklyn chef, to the isolated Canadian town of Starling Cove, where he spent the first years of his life raised in a quirky art commune – an experience of which he remembers almost nothing. Accompanying him are best friend Elisa, her husband, a 9/11 survivor named Jason, and Gabe, Blue’s young employee who is deeply in love with his mentor.

Blue’s discovery that, as a child, he was abducted and went missing for several weeks before returning, is just the start of his unearthing his true nature – a revelation that changes all four of them forever.

We caught up with Levy to discuss his novel’s inspirations, as well as its unique take on sexuality. Along the way, he managed to  completely win us over with a Tatiana Maslany reference.

One of the things I really like about your book is that it defies easy classification. How would you describe it to someone new to your work? 

Robert Levy: The Glittering World is a dark contemporary fairy tale about love and friendship, alienation and belonging, and what it truly means to be human (or otherwise).

I loved the mentions of the old NYC Club scene, to places like The Limelight. Were those written from personal experience? Were you a club kid?

Levy: I was not a club kid per se, but in the ’90s I was definitely club kid adjacent. I had lots of friends fully steeped in that world, who, like Blue and Elisa in the novel, worked in the clubs at night, and by day at places like Liquid Sky and Patricia Field. Sometimes in between classes during high school! It was a crazy epoch far too singular and ephemeral to last.

Let's talk about the setting for The Glittering World. Starling Cove is so vividly drawn it's like a character in its own right. How did you conjure such a specific sense of place? 

Levy: The basic setup for the novel was pulled directly from my own life, when four of us -- me, my husband, and another couple -- spent a week renting a vacation home in Cape Breton, and loved it so much we ended up going back, summer after summer.

I basically turned this idyllic location on its head and transformed it into a far darker and more mysterious place, one I could make fully my own while still drawing upon all the wonderful experiences I'd already had there. Once that shift happened, Starling Cove was able to breathe on its own.

There are a lot of interesting references to specific folklore and supernatural occurrences. What drew you to this subject matter?

Levy: I've always been interested in the strange, the otherworldly, and the unknowable, ever since I was very young. I think, at root, it's a fascination with death and the afterlife, whether there's anything else out there beyond our own perceivable world.

As for the folklore and mythology, a great deal of it was drawn right from the novel's setting. The mysterious beings known as "The Other Kind" were born of Cape Breton’s flora and fauna, its geographical features and native insect behavior, as well as Celtic and Gaelic mythology and culture, folklore and oral tradition and ballads. This is all by way of saying that research is most likely my favorite part of the writing process.

Sexuality is really complicated in your book, and I don't think incidental to the characterizations and narrative. Not to give too much away, but the ability to breed figures in prominently. How would you describe your characters' sexuality and what role do you see it playing in what happens to them?

Levy: I'm really glad you asked me this. Of the four protagonists, two are a married straight couple, one a bi man and another a gay man, and there's quite a tangled web of attractions among them, which influenced many of the characters' choices and propels the plot forward.

And while we're all motivated by our desires, I don't think it would be spoiling too much to say that one of them has a particular sexuality that is even more complicated than the others, and he's driven by it in a way that the others aren't ... Let's just say he's batting for a far different team and leave it at that!

On our site and elsewhere, there's been a lot of discussion about the evolution of gay (and to a lesser extent bisexual) characters, particularly on TV. We've seen not only increased numbers of gay characters but much more varied representations. Have you seen that sort of evolution in the literary world?

Levy: I think the literary world has always been more expansive and therefore more adventurous, due to the fact that there simply isn't a spotlight on books the way there is on television and film. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is that TV and film are vastly more popular, and hence have a lot more eyes on them (not to mention advertising dollars at stake, especially in terms of the typical network television structure). So authors have always been able to be more progressive in many respects, including diversity of sexuality.

The real milestone of diversity, however, is when we'll fully be free to make our characters authentic in every way, even the honest and ugly ones. Yes, we've come a long way from stock characters like the Queer Predator or Victim, but they transmuted into Gay Best Friends, neutered figures meant only to aid straight protagonists, along the lines of the Magical Negro or the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. These characters still exist in literature, as elsewhere, and the only way we can continue breaking them down is to put our money where our mouths are and support creative endeavors that reflect our real lives, warts and all.

 On your website you link to a great promotional video  for the book featuring your kids [a video directed by David Thorpe, who also directed the documentary Do I Sound Gay?]. Did the experience of parenting change what and how you write? 

Levy: Back to that breeding thing, huh? Becoming a parent has certainly strengthened my ability to write characters who are themselves parents, and realigned my understanding of what it means to be a child. But it certainly hasn't brightened my outlook; in fact, it's made me more fearful for the future they'll inherit.

So in terms of the typically dark and grim content I tend to traffic in, nothing much has changed on that front ... yet. It will be interesting to see if my kids ever want to read my work, and if so what they'll think of it!

Last but not least, let's play one of my favorite literary games -- let's cast the movie version of your book. Who do you see in the key roles?

Levy: Robert Pattinson as the up-and-coming, down-on-his-luck Brooklyn chef Blue Whitley, Tatiana Maslany as his best friend Elisa, Jason Olive as Elisa's husband Jason, and last but not least, Harry Styles (if he can act, and master an American accent) as Blue's adoring admirer Gabe. Hey, how can we make this happen? Get Hollywood on the phone, stat!

Thanks so much for having me on TheBacklot. I really appreciate it!