Description

A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2024

‘A joy’ THE WASHINGTON POST

‘Vibrant’ LIT HUB

‘Moving’ THE NEW YORK TIMES

‘Powerful’ NEW YORKER

Lucy Sante has often felt like an outsider. Born in Belgium to conservative Catholic working-class parents, she was transplanted to the United States without ever entirely settling here. But a feeling of home finally arrived when she moved to New York City in the early 1970s amidst her fellow bohemians. Through those electric years, some of her friends would die young, from drugs and AIDS, and others would become jarringly famous. Lucy flirted with both fates, on her way to building a glittering career as a writer. But she could never shake that feeling.

When she was finally ready, Lucy decided to confront the facade she’d been presenting to everyone, including herself, over these years. I Heard Her Call My Name is the story of that confrontation, of a life with a missing piece that with transition, falls into place. This a memoir of grace and wit that parses the issues of gender identity and far beyond with unbounding humility and hope.

‘Radical, humble and wise’ HERMIONE HOBY

‘An astonishing, once-in-a-lifetime achievement’ HUA HSU

‘Vivid, encompassing and compassionate’ CATHERINE LACEY

Publisher Review

Moving . . . powerful . . . Her sharpness and sanity, moodiness and skepticism are the appeal. * The New York Times * Reading this book is a joy . . . funny and warm * The Washington Post * Not to be missed, I Heard Her Call My Name is a powerful example of self-reflection and a vibrant exploration of the modern dynamics of gender and identity * Lit Hub * Marked by clarity and self-awareness . . . powerful * New Yorker * An astonishing, once-in-a-lifetime achievement, as two stories thread into one, from losing yourself in the lights, the sounds, the eyes of others, to the miraculous discovery of the language with which you can put yourself back together -- Hua Hsu, author of Stay True