Endpapers
A Novel
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In this page-turning novel set in 2003 New York City, a genderqueer book conservator feels trapped by her gender presentation, her ill-fitting relationship, and her artistic block—until she discovers a decades-old hidden queer love letter and becomes obsessed with tracking down its author.
It's 2003,and artist Dawn Levit is stuck. A bookbinder who works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she spends all day repairing old books but hasn’t created anything of her own in years. What’s more, although she doesn’t have a word for it yet, Dawn is genderqueer, and with a partner who wishes she were a man and a society that wants her to be a woman, she’s struggling to feel safe expressing herself. Dawn spends her free time scouting the city’s street art, hoping to find the inspiration that will break her artistic block—and time is of the essence, because she’s making her major gallery debut in six weeks and doesn’t have anything to show yet.
One day at work, Dawn discovers something hidden under the endpapers of an old book: the torn-off cover of a lesbian pulp novel from the 1950s, with an illustration of a woman looking into a mirror and seeing a man’s face. Even more intriguing is the queer love letter written on the back. Dawn becomes obsessed with tracking down the author of the letter, convinced the mysterious writer can help her find her place in the world. Her fixation only increases when her best friend, Jae, is injured in a hate crime for which Dawn feels responsible. But ultimately for Dawn, the trickiest puzzle to solve is how she truly wants to live her life.
A sharply written, page-turning, and evocative debut, Endpapers is an unforgettable story about the journey toward authenticity and the hard conversations we owe ourselves in pursuit of a world where no one has to hide.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kelly's richly imagined debut follows an aspiring artist as she attempts to jump-start her stalled professional and personal life. In 2003, genderfluid Dawn has been living for two years with musician Lukas, but lately Lukas only finds Dawn attractive when she presents herself as masculine. Dawn loves her job as a bookbinder at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but when she tries to design a book of her own, she's stymied. One day, disassembling an old book before repairing it, she finds a hidden cover from a steamy mid-20th century lesbian novel with a love letter in German written on the back of it. She sets out to find the letter's author and eventually locates Gertrude, elderly and ailing, in Brooklyn. Gertrude's memories of a society more repressive than the present and of forging her own rebellion in a group of "Sapphic Warriors" inspire Dawn to set boundaries in her own life and to create a piece of collaborative art. Kelly populates the novel with a roundly developed cast, including Dawn's best friend and her diverse coworkers, and while the mystery of why Gertrude's letter was bound into the book will keep the reader turning pages, it's Dawn's evolution as an artist and a person that gives the novel its beating heart. Readers will find lots to love.
