Peters, Torrey – The Bell Bookshop

Stag dance

Emma — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

**The irresistible follow-up to the hit debut novel Detransition, Baby**A BOOK TO WATCH IN 2025 IN THE GUARDIAN, IRISH TIMES, ROLLING STONES AND THE BBC’As innovative, insightful, funny, and confronting as we’ve come to expect from Peters’ work’ Independent, Best Books to Look Out for in 2025’A shining talent’ Stylist Best Books of 2025’Hot, heartbreaking and thrillingly victorious’ MIRANDA JULY ‘Potent and surprising and takes no prisoners’ CARMEN MARIA MACHADO ‘Spellbinding. With pathos and wit, Peters explores characters on the brink of self-discovery’ BRIT BENNETTDeep in the forest, a group of restless lumberjacks working an illegal logging outfit plan a winter dance that some will volunteer to attend as women; the broadest, strongest axeman finds himself caught in a rivalry with a pretty, young jack that culminates in jealousy, betrayal and an astonishing spectacle of transition. Meanwhile, in other times and places, the gender apocalypse is brought about by an unstable ex-girlfriend; an illicit boarding-school romance surfaces intrigue and cruelty; and a Las Vegas party weekend turns dark when a young crossdresser must choose between a thrilling mystery man or a veteran trans woman offering unglamorous sisterhood.In this quartet of tales, Torrey Peters’ keen eye for the rough edges of desire reveals fresh possibilities. Acidly funny, boldly inventive and breathtaking in scope, Stag Dance provokes and unsettles, inspires and delights.More praise for Torrey Peters: ‘Peters confronts the unruliness of our desires’ New Yorker ‘Peters captures the grandiose, heartfelt and sometimes mangled aspirations of queer and trans people’ Chris Kraus ‘Utterly savage and lacerating while also conveying endlessly expanding compassion’ Garth Greenwell

Detransition, Baby

Emma — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

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?

Detransition, Baby

Emma — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021As heard on BBC Radio 4’s Front RowFebruary 2021 Book of the Month for Roxane Gay’s Book Club’Irresistible … Detransition, Baby is the first great trans realist novel’ Grace Lavery, Guardian’A voraciously knowing, compulsively readable novel’ Chris Kraus’Tremendously funny and sexy as hell’ Juliet JacquesReese 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?