The All of It

‘Cadance Bell is a once-in-a-lifetime blazing talent.’ – Benjamin Law

What’s it like to grow up in an Aussie family that has a man of every flavour? A bank robber, an infamous sports umpire, several different breeds of drug addict (collect the whole set!), a roster of crafty swindlers, an attempted murderer and the local town drunk. And what if you had a secret so ghastly that you feared it made you more disgraceful than all of your roguish ancestors combined?

Seven years ago, Ben was a millennial with a death wish. He was loveless, overweight, crashing in his parents’ rumpus room and blinking his life away in a haze of marijuana vape. Then one day Ben decided to change everything – starting with the Ben bit. Becoming Cadance was more than a gender transition: it was a transition in every way, fear to acceptance, from self-loathing to love, anger to kindness. She was determined to experience the all of it.

Written with dazzling creativity and exuberance, The All of It is a wild coming-of-gender memoir like no other. Tender, tragic, hilarious and life-affirming, it will leave you understanding a little more about trans people, rural Australia, family, millennials and the beautiful contradictions of our kaleidoscopic world.

‘Laugh-out-loud funny and often moving . . . Bell is witty and candid, and I suspect we’ll read a lot more from her.’ - The Guardian

‘Truly the book all of Australia needs.’ - Star Observer

‘This is a beautiful, generous gift to the world . . . I can't even begin to say how much I loved this memoir.’ - Haley Scrivenor, bestselling author of Dirt Town