Both and Neither
A Memoir and History of Gender (Or, a Haunting)

Quotes

“In the tradition of such works as Saidiya Hartman’s Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments and Ekow Eshun’s The Strangers, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich’s inventive trans-fabulation reclaims the queer past in order to imagine their own queer future.”
—Nicholas Boggs, National Book Critics’ Circle Award–winning author of Baldwin: A Love Story

“Groundbreaking, nothing short of extraordinary. A vital exploration of trans experience across past and present. Blending rigorous historical research with deeply personal memoir, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich brings to light four trans forebears long obscured by history—and reveals the paths their lives have opened for generations to come.”
—Celeste Ng, New York Times bestselling author of Our Missing Hearts

“A book we need dearly, now and forever.…[A] reclamation of stories that have been erased, a document of reckoning and integrity, an account of the ways we find ourselves in history, in lovers, in bodies, and in archives; and a testimony to how important it is to resurrect stories that have been lost—in all their dignity and their complexity.”
—Leslie Jamison, New York Times bestseller and author of Splinters

“Deeply moving, hugely readable, politically vital and exquisitely written.”
—Mark Haddon, New York Times bestselling author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

“As transphobic backlash mires our present, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich turns to the past. Who were the trans figures who paved the way to our contemporary understanding of gender? And, just as often hidden from history, who were the lovers who truly saw them? Marzano-Lesnevich beautifully braids together four historical accounts with their own homecoming into truer gender expression—a journey as hopeful as it is fraught.”
—Maria Reva, author of Endling

“Inspiring and harrowing, Both and Neither shows the brilliant Alex Marzano-Lesnevich hot on the trail of their trans forebears...Moving, honest, spectacular, and, ultimately, hopeful.”
—Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of She’s Not There, Cleavage, and (with Jodi Picoult) Mad Honey

“An irresistible adventure…A major achievement, a work that will outlast us.”
—Paul Lisicky, author of Song So Wild and Blue and Later: My Life at the Edge of the World

“A thrilling masterwork that braids stories of transmasculine individuals with Marzano-Lesnevich’s own complicated and fascinating journey through gender. I read it in a rush, the emotional stakes so high and each history so gripping. BOTH AND NEITHER feels like a book we couldn’t have had before, and yet long needed. Marzano-Lesnevich has a precise, deeply attentive writer’s eye, investing each story with tenderness, nuance and pain. They are the only person who could’ve written it.”
—Lydi Conklin, author of Songs of No Provenance