Paul Takes the Form of A Mortal Girl

'Sexy, funny, genre-bending . . . a radical book' Elle

It's 1993 and Paul Polydoris tends bar at the only gay club in a university town thrumming with politics and partying. But Paul's also got a secret: he's a shapeshifter. Paul transforms his body at will from male to female in a desiring and sometimes tragic search for belonging that travels across the US, from Iowa City to San Francisco.

Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is a riotous, razor-sharp, queer bildungsroman whose hero/ine winds his way through a world gutted by loss in the wake of AIDS, pulsing with music, and opening into an array of intimate connections. Andrea Lawlor has written one of the most groundbreaking debut novels of recent years, an instant cult classic.

'I love this book, in all its ecstasy, wit, and hilarity . . . Paul is on fire, and an antihero for the ages' Maggie Nelson

'Riotous, gleeful, and wonderful from start to finish. I adored it and dare anyone else not to' Sophie Mackintosh