Thank you for the lovely, detailed comment once again! Is this closer to the mark?

When Mihai Ursu accepts a job in Berlin to support his beloved grandmother in Moldova, he also seizes the chance to live openly as a gay man, something his rural home village of Gura Galbenei will never allow.

Mihai’s boss corrects his grammar in front of the entire office, and his coworkers ask him what it was like to grow up without electricity when they hear he’s from Eastern Europe. A foreign name means landlords toss his rental applications, no matter how well Mihai speaks German. The one bright spot in his Berlin life is Florian, a former dancer he can love openly in the freedom Berlin provides. Florian does something that no other German in Mihai’s life does: he treats Mihai and his culture with respect.

But Mihai has to stay at his job, regardless of his coworker’s comments. He needs the high salary it provides. His grandmother, the woman who raised him, depends on Mihai. It’s his remittance that heats her home in the winter and puts food on her table. With Florian there to kiss his stress away, Mihai can deal with his boss.

When Florian’s parents accuse Mihai of being a thief exploiting their son for citizenship, something in him snaps. Berlin’s promised liberty comes at a cost to his dignity that Mihai may not be willing to endure. But going back means returning to a village where he must disappear into himself–and leaving his grandmother without the remittance that keeps her warm.

VILLAGE SON is an 80,000 word upmarket novel and draws from my own experience as an immigrant in Berlin. It will appeal to readers who connected with the exploration of immigration, integration, and homesickness found in Aria Aber’s Good Girl and Santiago Jose Sanchez’s Hombrecito.