"Mark liked to think he embraced the Buddhist concept of impermanence, but he wished it would leave his actual life well enough alone. Instead, everything was about to change. "

Second chances are hard to come by in Gerry Pirani's poignant new novel, "The Search for Intelligent Life on Earth: A Story of Love," an Award-Winning Finalist in the Fiction: LGBTQ category of the 2014 USA Best Book Awards.

While visiting his estranged father in Europe, nineteen-year-old Mark meets Jacques, a young Parisian socialite who performs as a drag queen. Mark is immediately conflicted by the...