Fellow Travelers (2007)

Set in the Senate hearing rooms and cocktail parties of McCarthy-era Washington, D.C., Fellow Travelers, Thomas Mallon's jaunty, talky novel depicts the charged romance between Timothy Laughlin, an innocent young congressional aide, and Hawkins Fuller, a charismatic and slippery State Department official. In this elite circle where gays are as reviled as Communists (but far more numerous), being outed can end a career. Mallon's characters grapple overtly (and sometimes a bit melodramatically) with stark moral choices, weighing the high human cost of secrets and lies — and outright treachery — against the undeniably abundant rewards once offered by a life in the closet. B