BROTHERS

Gary Miranda

“Brothers” is a haunting story of love, betrayal, redemption and the life-long friendship between two men, one gay and one straight.

Sal Damiano is an introverted teenager who blames himself for the recent suicide of his older brother. On graduating from high school, Sal retreats from the world to a Jesuit seminary in Oregon. There he meets Jeremy Sharpe, a brilliant, outspoken second-year seminarian whose own motives for entering the Jesuits are questionable.

Despite their almost opposite temperaments and the seminary rule against “particular friendships,” Sal and Jeremy become close enough friends that Jeremy decides to reveal a dangerous secret: he is gay. While this news initially shocks the straight and naïve Sal, it ultimately gives him the courage to share a dark secret of his own. In the meantime, Jeremy recognizes the latent poet in Sal and, when the two are not playing ping-pong or practical jokes, begins an unlikely training program geared to winning Sal a Pulitzer Prize.

When Jeremy graduates to further study at a seminary in Washington State, he and Sal anticipate seeing each other the following year, when Sal too will graduate. What neither of them anticipates, however, is the event that will end Jeremy’s career as a Jesuit and haunt Sal long after he too has returned to the secular world and, yes, won a Pulitzer Prize for poetry.