A powerful sense of empathy and a devilish wit fuel the exceptionally smart and funny first novel (after two novellas), Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters. Set amid the charming, and occasionally myopic, milieu of modern New York City, it disentangles a soapy love triangle with razor-sharp social commentary.
Reese has always longed to be a mother but has yet to become one--partially due to the limitations of her reproductive system, but mostly because society tends to sneer at trans women in general, and especially those who aspire to motherhood. In fact, it was largely social stigma that prompted Reese's ex-girlfriend to break up with her and detransition three years earlier. Ames had been Amy for about six years, taking hormone therapy that he thought had left him sterile. Until, that is, Ames's boss Katrina beckons him into her office to announce that the little affair they've been having has gotten her pregnant. Panicked about the prospect of parenthood, Ames calls the one person he's always relied on: Reese.
Neither Reese nor Katrina is initially thrilled by Ames's proposed queering of the family unit, and their rivalry and repartee work like magic to peel back preconceived notions of what motherhood means on an individual level. As a mixed-race child of Chinese and Jewish ancestry, Katrina, too, is painfully aware of how society enforces "the idea that not all motherhoods are legitimate." Peters displays an inspiring knack for highlighting common ground, typically buried under heaps of identity politics, as she allows her characters opportunity to relax their grip on what has hardened them, and reach for a softer future. --Dave Wheeler, associate editor, Shelf Awareness