Stag Dance - by Torrey Peters (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST - 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 - LONGLISTED FOR THE STORY PRIZE - ONE OF VULTURE'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR - A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Elle, Electric Lit, them, Chicago Public Library

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.

Review Quotes

"Sincere and mind-bending . . . [Stag Dance] is more exciting than anything else around."--New York

"The four pieces in Stag Dance will leave you bruised, broken and wanting more."--The New York Times

"[Peters is] one of the boldest, most innovative voices in fiction today."--Bustle

"Stag Dance is funny, brilliant, and effortlessly original."--Vulture

"A collection of four shorter works that meld emotionality and manic smuttiness to incredible effect."--Vanity Fair

"A fascinating exercise in genre experimentation . . . Eschewing straightforward representation, Stag Dance explores the ambiguities of gender and identity, and questions whether 'trans' and 'cis' are always neatly separable categories. While often dark in subject matter, it's a delight to read: heartbreaking and hilarious, formally inventive and narratively gripping."--Dazed

"[Stag Dance perfectly showcases Peters's] acid wit, incredible talent, and eye for possibility."--The Chicago Review of Books

"Adventurous, mind-expanding and provocative fiction."--Bernardine Evaristo, The Guardian

"Deliciously filthy . . . Peters unravels the glorious, aching euphoria of giving in to yourself."--Big Issue

"You never knew you needed a short story collection that includes lonely lumberjacks exploring queerness and gender, but you do."--USA Today

"Stunning."--Cosmopolitan

"Brilliant, mind-blowing . . . Peters' vision is one where gender roles are never stagnant, and the world is made new by queerness."--BookPage

"Inventive, boundary-pushing . . . [Stag Dance takes] on gender, transness and lives on the margins in all of their gorgeously complicated glory."--People

"Incredibly engrossing . . . Torrey Peters brings her signature wit and heart to get past the labels and into the core of how we all negotiate the ways we want to be seen."--NPR

"Precise, original, funny and fearless."--Shortlist

"Electrifying."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Stag Dance further establishes [Peters] as an essential voice in queer literature."--AV Club

"Peters seems to delight in complicating liberal identity politics, refusing ever to sanitise her work or narrow her focus, and glorying in some truly rollicking prose."--The Guardian

"The stories in Stag Dance are potent and surprising and take no prisoners. How exquisitely Peters writes about the way we move toward ourselves--with the clarity of desire and the agony of resistance."--Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House

"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, author of Nevada

About the Author

Torrey Peters is the bestselling author of the novel Detransition, Baby, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and was named one of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century by The New York Times. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize, a finalist for the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize, and longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. She has an MFA from the University of Iowa and an MA in comparative literature from Dartmouth. Peters rides a pink motorcycle and splits her time between Brooklyn and an off-grid cabin in Vermont.