So imagine my delight when people on the message boards I belong to started talking about a new book that finally 'got' it. These days I don't really care if people understand me so long as they respect my wishes and don't call me by my old name, male pronouns, or 'it.' Real world interactions with people almost always lead me to lower my expectations. I wanted to find just one text that could express all of that and help others understand why I'd undertaken, why I had very much needed to undertake, such a drastic process. Guided by an instantly memorable, terminally self-aware protagonist-and back in print featuring a new afterword by the author- Nevada is the great American road novel flipped on its head for a new generation.Įarlier this year, when I first started to try to get people to understand what I meant when I said that I was transgender, I searched high and low for any texts that I could give people to describe the dissociation from my body, the self-loathing I carried with me everywhere, the complete sense of helpless panic mixed with the certainty that I needed to do something. One of the most beloved cult novels of our time and a landmark of trans literature, Imogen Binnie's Nevada is a blistering, heartfelt, and evergreen coming-of-age story, and a punk-smeared excavation of marginalized life under capitalism. As Maria finds herself in the awkward position of trans role model, she realizes that she could become James's savior-or his downfall.

She ends up in the backwater town of Star City, Nevada, where she meets James, who is probably but not certainly trans, and who reminds Maria of her younger self. Everything is mostly fine until Maria and Steph break up, sending Maria into a tailspin, and then onto a cross-country trek in the car she steals from Steph. She takes random pills and drinks more than is good for her, but doesn't inject anything except, when she remembers, estrogen, because she's trans. She's in love with her bike but not with her girlfriend, Steph. Maria Griffiths is almost thirty and works at a used bookstore in New York City while trying to stay true to her punk values. A beloved and blistering cult classic and finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction finally back in print, Nevada follows a disaffected trans woman as she embarks on a cross-country road trip.

Nevada by Imogen Binnie