Detransition, Baby

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021Shortlisted for the 2022 National Book Critics' Circle John Leonard Prize for best first bookAs heard on BBC Radio 4's Front Row'A voraciously knowing, compulsively readable novel' Chris Kraus'Tremendously funny and sexy as hell' Juliet Jacques'I loved this very smart book from start to finish, with its beautifully drawn, complicated, and winning characters.' Madeleine MillerReese nearly had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York, a job she didn't hate. She'd scraped together a life previous generations of trans women could only dream of; the only thing missing was a child. Then everything fell apart and three years on Reese is still in self-destruct mode, avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men.When her ex calls to ask if she wants to be a mother, Reese finds herself intrigued. After being attacked in the street, Amy de-transitioned to become Ames, changed jobs and, thinking he was infertile, started an affair with his boss Katrina. Now Katrina's pregnant. Could the three of them form an unconventional family - and raise the baby together?

So good I want to scream, Irresistible ... Perhaps Detransition, Baby is the first great trans realist novel? Witty, elegant and rigorously plotted, The smartest novel I've read in ages ... it manages to be utterly savage & lacerating while also conveying endlessly expanding compassion. It's kind of a miracle., Detransition, Baby is emotionally generous, richly textured, and deeply intelligent - a vibrant and kaleidoscopic portrait of complicated women and their colliding lives., Detransition, Baby updates and transcends (trans-scends!) the Sex and the City model, while fully delivering its many satisfactions! ... A noteworthy advance in the history of the novel!

Torrey Peters lives in Brooklyn and holds an MFA from the University of Iowa and a Masters in Comparative Literature from Dartmouth. She is the author of two novellas, Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones and The Masker. @torreypeters

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