"This is important: he sees me in a certain way, a way he will never deviate from. In the end, love was only possible because he saw me not as who I was, but as the person I would become."

What type of Call Me By Your Name ish is this?
Life-changing first romance with a member of the same sex at the age of seventeen? ✔
Romance set in the mid-80s? ✔
Short-lived because one of them leaves for another country? ✔
Story in its entirety takes place over 20+ years? ✔

Spoiler

Don't end up together in the end? ✔

Anyway this book is wonderful and tragic and gorgeously written and yes, if you do like CMBYN then you'll probably like this. It's so much more than that though and is heartbreakingly an autobiographical story, which makes some of the more sadder elements of the book just hit that much harder.

It's a story of a romance that last both a few months and the rest of their lives, and with that, I'll leave you with probably the most essential quote in the book.

"He adds this phrase, which for me is unforgettable: Because you will leave and we will stay."