NATIONAL BESTSELLER • ‘This inventive, boundary-pushing follow-up to Detransition, Baby . . . [takes] on gender, transness and lives on the margins in all of their gorgeously complicated glory.’—People
‘Hot, heartbreaking, and thrillingly victorious.’—Miranda July, New York Times bestselling author of All Fours
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • A VULTURE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR (SO FAR)
In this collection of one novel and three stories, bestselling author Torrey Peters’s keen eye for the rough edges of community and desire push the limits of trans writing.
In Stag Dance, the titular novel, a group of restless lumberjacks working in an illegal winter logging outfit plan a dance that some of them will volunteer to attend as women. When the broadest, strongest, plainest of the axmen announces his intention to dance as a woman, he finds himself caught in a strange rivalry with a pretty young jack, provoking a cascade of obsession, jealousy, and betrayal that will culminate on the big night in an astonishing vision of gender and transition.
Three startling stories surround Stag Dance: ‘Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones’ imagines a gender apocalypse brought about by an unstable ex-girlfriend. In ‘The Chaser,’ a secret romance between roommates at a Quaker boarding school brings out intrigue and cruelty. In the last story, ‘The Masker,’ a party weekend on the Las Vegas strip turns dark when a young crossdresser must choose between two guides: a handsome mystery man who objectifies her in thrilling ways, or a cynical veteran trans woman offering unglamorous sisterhood.
Acidly funny and breathtaking in its scope, with the inventive audacity of George Saunders or Jennifer Egan, Stag Dance provokes, unsettles, and delights.
Genre: Literary Fiction
‘Hot, heartbreaking, and thrillingly victorious.’—Miranda July, New York Times bestselling author of All Fours
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • A VULTURE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR (SO FAR)
In this collection of one novel and three stories, bestselling author Torrey Peters’s keen eye for the rough edges of community and desire push the limits of trans writing.
In Stag Dance, the titular novel, a group of restless lumberjacks working in an illegal winter logging outfit plan a dance that some of them will volunteer to attend as women. When the broadest, strongest, plainest of the axmen announces his intention to dance as a woman, he finds himself caught in a strange rivalry with a pretty young jack, provoking a cascade of obsession, jealousy, and betrayal that will culminate on the big night in an astonishing vision of gender and transition.
Three startling stories surround Stag Dance: ‘Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones’ imagines a gender apocalypse brought about by an unstable ex-girlfriend. In ‘The Chaser,’ a secret romance between roommates at a Quaker boarding school brings out intrigue and cruelty. In the last story, ‘The Masker,’ a party weekend on the Las Vegas strip turns dark when a young crossdresser must choose between two guides: a handsome mystery man who objectifies her in thrilling ways, or a cynical veteran trans woman offering unglamorous sisterhood.
Acidly funny and breathtaking in its scope, with the inventive audacity of George Saunders or Jennifer Egan, Stag Dance provokes, unsettles, and delights.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"Spellbinding. With pathos and wit, 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
"This is what I want from fiction. It starts at a place of real vulnerability, goes all the way down its own rabbit hole, and ends up potent and strange." - Imogen Binnie
"A brilliant literary kaleidoscope. Peters shatters the familiar in four bold and imaginative tales, each powerful enough to reshape our understanding of transness and where we find it." - Nicola Dinan
"Moves nimbly with vivid characters ever-exploring gender and connection." - Rupert Everett
"Utterly savage and lacerating while also conveying endlessly expanding compassion." - Garth Greenwell
"Torrey Peters is often describing something that has never been described before and it's never something minor, it's something massive that has been missing from our understanding and enjoyment of the world. Stag Dance is hot, heartbreaking and thrillingly victorious." - Miranda July
"Emotionally generous, richly textured, and deeply intelligent - a vibrant and kaleidoscopic portrait of complicated women and their colliding lives." - Claire Lombardo
"The stories in Stag Dance are potent and surprising and take no prisoners. How exquisitely Peters writes about the way we move towards ourselves - with the clarity of desire and the agony of resistance." - Carmen Maria Machado
"Torrey Peters is a holy, dreadful storyteller, her words divine and her characters brutally real, her talent awe-inspiring, her vision immense. Her writing tears your guts out. It leaves you gasping. This is fiction that makes you drop to your knees - fiction at its very best." - Julia Phillips
"This is what I want from fiction. It starts at a place of real vulnerability, goes all the way down its own rabbit hole, and ends up potent and strange." - Imogen Binnie
"A brilliant literary kaleidoscope. Peters shatters the familiar in four bold and imaginative tales, each powerful enough to reshape our understanding of transness and where we find it." - Nicola Dinan
"Moves nimbly with vivid characters ever-exploring gender and connection." - Rupert Everett
"Utterly savage and lacerating while also conveying endlessly expanding compassion." - Garth Greenwell
"Torrey Peters is often describing something that has never been described before and it's never something minor, it's something massive that has been missing from our understanding and enjoyment of the world. Stag Dance is hot, heartbreaking and thrillingly victorious." - Miranda July
"Emotionally generous, richly textured, and deeply intelligent - a vibrant and kaleidoscopic portrait of complicated women and their colliding lives." - Claire Lombardo
"The stories in Stag Dance are potent and surprising and take no prisoners. How exquisitely Peters writes about the way we move towards ourselves - with the clarity of desire and the agony of resistance." - Carmen Maria Machado
"Torrey Peters is a holy, dreadful storyteller, her words divine and her characters brutally real, her talent awe-inspiring, her vision immense. Her writing tears your guts out. It leaves you gasping. This is fiction that makes you drop to your knees - fiction at its very best." - Julia Phillips
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