Detransition, Baby

A shrewd debut about three women (transgender and cisgender) whose lives intersect as they are forced to face their most intimate needs related to sex, parenting, and gender.

Reese almost had it all: a fulfilling profession, an apartment in New York City, and a wonderful relationship with Amy. She had eked out a life of banal, bourgeois comforts—something that trans women in earlier eras could only hope for. A kid was the only thing that was absent. However, everything collapsed when Amy, her lover, detransitioned and changed her identity to Ames. Reese is now stuck in a harmful routine where she sleeps with married guys to avoid feeling lonely.

Even Ames isn't content. Detransitioning to become a man, in his opinion, would make life simpler, but he lost his connection with Reese as a result, and losing her meant losing his own family. He's desperate to get back to her, even if their relationship is finished. Ames questions if this is the opportunity he's been waiting for when Katrina, his employer and girlfriend, discloses that she is expecting his child and is unsure whether she wants to keep it. Could the three of them create an unusual family unit and raise the child together?

This thought-provoking debut explores what goes on in the messy, fragile, and emotional places of women that are inaccessible to well-meaning remarks and words. Torrey Peters gives us a grippingly unique, funny, and profoundly touching book by deftly and bravely navigating the most perilous taboos around gender, sex, and relationships.