This was just completely fantastic, and the audio narrator actually outshined the excellent voice crafted for this. In my head, I was enjoying this—when it was supplanted by the narrator though, it went to new heights.

The plot is pretty conventional: An inter generational story about someone with a specific gene that had them transition to a new gender. You know all of this from the jump. Our narrator does a heck of a job setting things up before diving headlong into a pretty granular account of his immigrant parents’ story. We eventually make our way to our narrator and up to a certain point that the story began at. Finishing at the open, so to speak.

The characters are incredibly vivid and the descriptions in time and place well rendered. But I think this voice could sell me on just about anything. From Chicago riots to idiosyncratic myths of the old country, to runaway teens, I don’t think my attention wained at any point. I was invested in the story and the character in a way I generally am not, even with exceptional writing—because my brain just typically remains macro, even when the fiction shies from it. Maybe because this tricksy narrator likes to bounce back and forth in perspectives? Whatever the reason, this was absolutely entrancing.