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Somebody to Love
A provocative novel about love and death and the narrow line between them.
Over one weekend in a small Tasmanian town, a transsexual mortician prepares three bodies for burial at a funeral home. As she carefully works on the Kremmer son, the Esterhazen girl and Mr Phillips, she reflects on her own unusual life and childhood – her father's obsession with taxidermy and other darker pursuits, her own induction into the arts of taxidermy, the death of her parents and her ultimate transformation from man to woman.
Her sex change was a tentative step towards finding somebody to love her, and choosing a man came next. But when her plans to be with her chosen one are interrupted, she discovers just how far she will go to keep the hope of love alive.
In a corrupt world where appearance is everything, what makes us open our hearts to others?
Steve Holden's haunting debut novel reminds us that the search for love requires courage, no matter whose skin you inhabit.
Over one weekend in a small Tasmanian town, a transsexual mortician prepares three bodies for burial at a funeral home. As she carefully works on the Kremmer son, the Esterhazen girl and Mr Phillips, she reflects on her own unusual life and childhood – her father's obsession with taxidermy and other darker pursuits, her own induction into the arts of taxidermy, the death of her parents and her ultimate transformation from man to woman.
Her sex change was a tentative step towards finding somebody to love her, and choosing a man came next. But when her plans to be with her chosen one are interrupted, she discovers just how far she will go to keep the hope of love alive.
In a corrupt world where appearance is everything, what makes us open our hearts to others?
Steve Holden's haunting debut novel reminds us that the search for love requires courage, no matter whose skin you inhabit.
- GenresFiction
180 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 24, 2019
This one is certainly not for the faint hearted.
January 22, 2020
This only gets two stars as I actually forced myself into finishing it as it was short. But dear god. A terrible representation of a trans woman who’s only goal is to be the most stereotypical version of a woman. Because all we care about is being pretty and finding a man, amiright, ladies? All characters are detestable, the prose is way too flowery, and the story dumb at best. It feels more like a bad b-movie (and this is coming from a lady who loves b-movies), and I would detest this as a film too. Ugh what a slog.
January 19, 2020
Absolutely despicable portrayal of a transgender woman. Not only does she "enjoy" sexual abuse from her childhood, she helps her father have sex with corpses and grows up to do the same herself.
No trans woman would ever speak of herself in the way the person in this book would. This is clearly the foul imagination of an old cis man.
Steve Holden is a disgrace to the Tasmanian authors community.
No trans woman would ever speak of herself in the way the person in this book would. This is clearly the foul imagination of an old cis man.
Steve Holden is a disgrace to the Tasmanian authors community.
January 28, 2018
Grotesque is, frankly, the only word that comes to mind when reviewing this book. Grotesque subject matter and grotesque depiction of a transgender person. There was no beauty in reading this book. I wish I could I unread it.
February 6, 2019
An informative interesting read, can’t wait to read more from this innovative writer.
June 8, 2013
Very strange and....disturbing. Didn't like it much but finished it anyway.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews