Trans life past, present and future is explored in this kaleidoscopic follow-up to the Women's Prize-nominated Detransition, Baby
'Two hours later, a chill rose off the long shadows and we had readied ourselves for the dance. I had my eyelashes darkened. He pricked his finger with the tip of a pocket-blade, and on the newly exposed globes of my cheeks, we made circles of rouge. I'd never shared much time with any other person. Never been so open and sharing and naked in the intentions of our bodily preparations. Not brother, not sister, not good-time girls, nor fellow jacks.'
Trans life past, present and future is explored in this kaleidoscopic follow-up to the Women's Prize-nominated Detransition, Baby
'Peters confronts the unruliness of our desires' New Yorker
From the adventures of a lonely logger who, deep in the forest, joins his workmates to dance dressed as a woman, to the story of an obsessive boarding-school romance, to the dizzying spectacle of a gender apocalypse brought about by an unstable ex-girlfriend, Peters' keen eye for the rough edges of trans community and desire reveals fresh possibilities. Acidly funny and breath-taking in its scope, with the inventive audacity of Lauren Groff or Jennifer Egan, Stag Dance provokes, unsettles and delights.
'Torrey Peters captures the grandiose, heartfelt and sometimes mangled aspirations of queer and trans people' - Chris Kraus
About the Author
Torrey Peters' first novel, Detransition, Baby won the PEN/ Hemingway Award 2022 and was shortlisted for the 2022 National Book Critics' Circle John Leonard Prize for best first book. A Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller, it was longlisted for the 2021 Women's Prize for Fiction.
Industry Reviews
'Spellbinding ... With pathos and wit, Torrey Peters explores characters who find themselves on the brink of self-discovery while also grappling with the challenge and promise of community. I loved this book' - Brit Bennett, New York Times-bestselling author of The Vanishing Half
'Electrifying ... The funny yet heart-wrenching title novella, set sometime during the primacy of steam engines and written in the style of a tall tale, may be Peters' best work yet ... Peters explores her characters' conundrums with striking honesty, revealing how they're bound by indecision and insecurities from finding happiness, and she exhibits spectacular flexibility with language and form. It's a marvel' - Publishers Weekly, starred review
'So good I want to scream' - Carmen Maria Machado
'Utterly savage and lacerating while also conveying endlessly expanding compassion' - Garth Greenwell