The Dove in the Belly

Jim Grimsley

May 2022 · RB Media · Narrated by Michael Crouch

About this audiobook

At the University of North Carolina, Ronny's made some friends, kept his secrets, survived dorm life, and protected his heart.

Until he can't. Ben is in some ways Ronny's opposite; he's big and solid where Ronny is small and slight. Ben's at UNC on a football scholarship. Confident, with that easy jock swagger, and an explosive temper always simmering. He has a steady stream of girlfriends. Ben's aware of the overwhelming effect he has on Ronny. It's like a sensation of power. So easy to tease Ronny, throw playful insults, but it all feels somehow.loaded.

Meanwhile Ronny's mother has moved to Vegas with her latest husband. And Ben's mother is fighting advanced cancer. A bubble forms around the two, as surprising to Ronny as it is to Ben. Within it their connection ignites physically and emotionally. But what will happen when the tensile strength of a bubble is tested? When the rest of life intervenes?

The Dove in the Belly is about the electric, dangerous, sometimes tender but always powerful attraction between two very different boys. But it's also about the full cycles of love and life and how they open in us the twinned capacities for grief and joy.

About the author

Jim Grimsley's first novel, Winter Birds (1994), has been called a harrowing portrayal of family violence. It garnered the North Carolina native the 1995 Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Grimsley, who admits he writes autobiographical fiction, has also written Dream Boy (1995), and My Drowning (1997). He is also a playwright and has contributed short stories to anthologies such as Men on Men 6: Best New Gay Fiction (1996). Grimsley's plays have been produced nationwide, including at Atlanta's 7 Stages Theatre, where he has been a writer-in-residence for ten years. Jim Grimsley has been awarded the Bryan Prize for Drama by the Fellowship of Southern Writers and the George Oppenheimer Award for Best New American Playwright of 1988. Michael Crouch was awarded the Dixson Medal for `distinguished contributions to business, innovation, philanthropy and the cultural sector, including the State Library of NSW¿ and `the understanding of Australia and support for libraries and other cultural institutions¿.