I am thrilled to be taking part in the celebrations for the Cheltenham Literary Festival which is running from October 4-17.This International Festival is showcasing a wide variety of genres and the programme spans history, food, travel, poetry and spoken
word, art, sport, faith, philosophy, fashion, psychology,
science, nature, business and much more. You can find more information about the festival here.
I am lucky to have received a copy of Torrey Peters' Detransition, Baby which has been longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2021. Torrey Peters is appearing alongside Elizabeth Day at the Festival on Saturday 9th October at 8.30pm. Their session is called Detransition, Divorce And Starting Anew: Torrey will be talking via live link from the US to Elizabeth Day,and they will discuss divorce, de-transition and the pains and pleasures of reinventing yourself.'Irresistible ... Detransition, Baby is the first great trans realist novel' Grace Lavery, Guardian
Reese 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?
My Thoughts
As I read this book with its focus on three women, trans and cis, I was struck at how they seemed to be continually reassessing their self -identity and re-evaluating how they fitted into the world they found themselves in. I thought that particularly Reece seemed to alter herself according to who she was with and at times wanted nothing more than to be not noticed- at other times, she seemed to want the opposite! Starting over again and re-inventing yourself after trauma runs through the book. The author dedicates the book to divorced women and draws a parallel between the experience of trans women and those going through divorce as they have to start again, putting the past aside.
Motherhood dominates the book with different views shown by the characters. What makes a family and how co-parenting can work are ideas which are looked at by the different women. You feel the pain of the characters, especially Reece, as she agonises over her desire to be a parent. This is a raw look at three women's lives with some violence and trauma which shows how some people cannot face up to how their behaviour will affect others.
About the Author
Torrey Peters is the author of the novel Detransition, Baby, published
by One World/Random House, which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize
for Fiction. She is also the authors of the novellas Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones and The Masker.
She has an MFA from the University of Iowa and a Masters in Comparative
Literature from Dartmouth. Torrey rides a pink motorcycle and splits
her time between Brooklyn and an off-grid cabin in Vermont.
You can follow Torrey here: Website | Twitter
Book link: Amazon UK
Thanks to Torrey Peters and Sofia Saghir of midaspr for a copy of the book and a place on the tour.
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