Call Me By Your Name Writer Teases Oliver and Elio’s Sequel Romance

Start stocking up on peaches because the highly anticipated sequel to Call Me by Your Name -- the novel by Andre Aciman, not the film adaptation starring Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer -- is almost here. Find Me will be released on October 29, and in a new interview with Britsh Vogue, Aciman teased some hints about what is in store for the lovers in the new tale.

The end of Aciman book's doesn't stop where the film does and instead tracks the lives of Elio and Oliver 20 years after their summer romance, as they reunite in Italy.

"They are clearly more mature now and know how fragile life can be," Aciman said of his characters. "They have both had other relationships, [and] they know that they have to be careful and that a separation, should it occur again, would be devastating. Find Me gave me a sense of closure and finality. Of course, life is full of surprises and no road is without bumps or wrong turns. But I think this ends the tale of Elio and Oliver."

Aciman even addressed the controversial (to me) decision to alter the infamous peach scene (in the book, Oliver eats a peach Elio has just masturbated into, in the film Elio stops him). Aciman wasn't bothered by the change. "When I wrote the scene, I was enjoying myself," he said. "But when you write it, it's one thing. I thought eating the peach would be too strong on screen. I loved the way it was done. I didn't need to see him eat the peach, I didn't need to see raw sex -- it's fine, it's just fine." To you.

In the interview, Aciman also spoke about wanting to write a gay love story free from tragedy, something rare for queer literature. "I was not interested in bullying or mockery or violence or AIDS," he said. "I eliminated all these almost predictable villains in every gay story." While that doesn't reflect the lived experience of all queer people, some readers certainly found it refreshing to read a novel where about queer folks who never experienced homophobia. "I didn't want it," he continued. "People know they're gay and nobody thinks twice about it, which is how it should be -- and I have to say, in the world I live in, this is how it is."

Aciman is heterosexual so... make of that what you will!

But with Find Me finally hitting stores, the next question is whether it will eventually find its way to theaters. While Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino expressed interest in making a sequel several times, star Armie Hammer told Vulture in March that making a follow-up would be "setting ourselves up for disappointment." He said that if both Guadagnino and Chalamet returned he'd be an "asshole to say no." "But at the same time," Hammer added, "I'm like, That was such a special thing, why don't we just leave that alone?"

Find Me will be available next Tuesday.

RELATED | Armie Hammer Doesn't Want a Call Me By Your Name Sequel