First published 1972
A gynecologist delivers shocking news to M. W. Niemann: "Miss, you're also a boy!" Born with both female and male organs, Millie/Willie faces an impossible choice between two identities. The narrative follows this double-gendered protagonist through a series of transformations, from sensitive girl to tough gang member, from Harvard student to seductive mistress of powerful men. Niemann becomes an underage physicist, then shifts to stone age archaeology. The journey continues through parenthood experienced from both perspectives, political activism that leads to imprisonment on treason charges, and business success as a visionary entrepreneur. Throughout these metamorphoses, Niemann pursues poetry, science, politics, and wealth with equal fervor. The story builds toward Niemann's ultimate triumph as a Nobel Prize winner in Poetry, having navigated the contested territory between male and female existence. This legendary fictional autobiography explores how one person embodies the complete spectrum of human experience, finally discovering what it means to be fully alive as both man and woman.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, biographical-fiction, academic, transgender
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: gender-fluid, unreliable-narrator
426 pages · Hardcover · Alfred A. Knopf Inc
Content warnings: medical-trauma