The Envelope

What begins with a mysterious envelope becomes the story of a lifetime.In the summer of 1972, eighteen-year-old Eric Bradley is standing at the edge of adulthood, still trying to understand who he is and what kind of life might be possible for him. Then he meets Martin Dawson-a sophisticated, worldly man whose influence will change the course of Eric's life forever.Their relationship begins with attraction, curiosity, and a sealed envelope containing one thousand dollars. But the envelopes keep coming, each one carrying a mystery Martin refuses to explain.Over the decades that follow, Eric builds an extraordinary life filled with love, friendship, family, success, heartbreak, humor, loss, and second chances. Along the way, he is shaped by the people who enter his world: the men he loves, the friends who become family, the children who give his life new meaning, and Martin-the man who first saw something in Eric that Eric had not yet learned to see in himself.Warm, candid, funny, romantic, and deeply human, The Envelope is a sweeping story about growing up gay in a changing America, the many forms love can take, and the people whose influence remains with us long after they are gone.And through it all, one question remains: What do the envelopes really mean?