Call Me by Your Name again: André Aci­man on his new nov­el ​‘Find Me’

From page to screen, André Aciman’s ​‘Call Me by Your Name’ has cap­tured the hearts of read­ers and film­go­ers alike with its authen­tic char­ac­ters and allur­ing nar­ra­tive. Lat­er this year, the Call Me by Your Name uni­verse is set to expand with the release of Aciman’s sequel, ​‘Find Me’.

At a recent Q&A event in Lon­don, the Amer­i­can author offered some insight into his lat­est nov­el while also reflect­ing on the last­ing appeal of ​‘Call Me by Your Name’. Like admir­ers of his work the world over, he remains infat­u­at­ed by the lives of Elio and Oliv­er. ​“I just want­ed to be back with them again because I love them,” he said, ​“I love their love.”

Aci­man offered a taste of what we can expect from his new book: ​“In ​‘Call Me by Your Name’ you have the father giv­ing a speech to the son – in oth­er words, he has the expe­ri­ence the son doesn’t, so the son lis­tens. In ​‘Find Me’, you have the father thank­ing the son for teach­ing him about love.” This con­nec­tion between father and son is an inte­gral part of Aciman’s writ­ing, and ​‘Find Me’ will offer, ​“anoth­er vari­a­tion on the theme of love between par­ents and chil­dren, [which is] cer­tain­ly very impor­tant to me.”

Teas­ing the con­tent of ​‘Find Me’, Aci­man con­tin­ues: ​“I’ve always been inter­est­ed in the begin­ning of a rela­tion­ship; I don’t like focus­ing on the end.” This state­ment may reflect the direc­tion he has tak­en his lat­est nov­el in. How­ev­er, he reas­sured fans of the orig­i­nal book: ​“I think that Elio will live the rest of his life hav­ing accept­ed that he remem­bers every­thing with fondness.”

Aci­man also spoke about how mem­o­ry remains an inte­gral part of his writ­ing. ​“In life, the only thing I’m inter­est­ed in is what goes on in somebody’s mind – and mem­o­ry, for me, is the most impor­tant thing we have.” With Aci­man evi­dent­ly as pas­sion­ate as ever about the lives and love he has cre­at­ed, we can’t wait to immerse our­selves in the next chap­ter of a cap­ti­vat­ing romance which began that sum­mer in 1983, some­where in North­ern Italy.

‘Find Me’ is pub­lished on 29 October.