Discuss a powerful coming-of-age story set in 1950s San Francisco. Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo follows a young Chinese American girl as she navigates identity, family expectations and first love against the backdrop of the Red Scare. Explore themes of belonging, secrecy and self-discovery in this award-winning novel.
In conjunction with our special exhibit Banned Books 250, we are hosting monthly banned books book clubs with the San Francisco Public Library.
Where: The American Bookbinders Museum
When: Tuesday June 16th, 4:00-6:00pm
Registration is required; seating is limited.
Light refreshments will be served.
Publisher’s Synopsis
Dutton Books for Young Readers
December 28, 2021
978-0525555278
Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the feeling took root—that desire to look, to move closer, to touch. Whenever it started growing, it definitely bloomed the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. Suddenly, everything seemed possible.
But 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.
It was awarded a National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.
Ban History
Last Night at the Telegraph Club faced its first challenge in 2022 at St. Tammany Parish Library in Louisiana. Concerns from a parent about the book’s sexual content, this book along with approximately 30 other books were sequestered. In 2023 the books were returned to the library but placed on a special cart that needs to be requested. Two months after this event the book’s challenger withdrew the case under the belief that the local government was making moves to ban these titles. This story is not unique, it is merely the first. Last Night at the Telegraph Club was the 4th most banned book in 2024.
“The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.” -Oscar Wilde
