I got this good-condition hardcover at the annual book sale of the Pepperell MA public library.

While I did find it a bit off-putting that the author chose to use the real name of Einar Wegener while fictionalizing a fair percentage of the story, I did enjoy the novel. (Since so many other characters were modified, renamed, invented or composited, I'm not sure why Einar and Lili were kept.) The novel does make use of many aspects of the real-life characters, while modifying others for the sake of the story, and - reading it as a novel - I found it compelling, touching, and sometimes infuriating. [The "infuriating" bits mostly had to do with the all-too-real attitudes of most medical science and popular opinion regarding transgender people - though in this novel, most of the main characters are surprisingly supportive from the get-go.]

The language is lyrical, painting scenes in the way that the artistic Einar and his wife Greta paint pictures - and, from the very beginning, it's obvious that Greta sees the woman in Einar before he's willing to admit it himself. However, it often seems that Lili is more of an alternate personality than Einar's hidden feminine side; at times she claims not to remember things that he did, and vice versa, and in general Lili doesn't seem as able to function in the world as one would hope.

The story unfolds in flashbacks, filling in the backgrounds of Einar and Greta individually, showing how they met, and how their relationship changes once Lili arrives. We see emotional ups and downs as well as professional ones, as Lili isn't (or doesn't want to be) a painter, while Greta seems to be inspired by Lili-as-model-and-muse to do better work than she was capable of before.

It's when Lili begins to investigate medical help - with separate suggestions from Greta and from Greta's brother Carlisle, who's supportive but more focused on mental-health - things get suspenseful; at one point the "simple surgical procedure" of lobotomy is suggested, and I had to fear for Lili! But she opts for the doctor that Greta had found, one who is willing to assist in gender-reassignment surgery - though, alas, still at a rather crude level. The descriptions of Lili's reactions to the surgery (and the brutally over-exposure of X-rays as a "therapeutic" measure) were painful to read, and while she did eventually recover, she wound up with a need for regular painkillers. And, alas, she couldn't stop with the basic surgery, but decided to venture on a uterine transplant - which, the reader knows, can't possibly work in these decades before the development of anti-rejection drugs. The novel ends with Lili's fate left ambiguous, perhaps the most hopeful way it could under the circumstances - still beautifully written, and very, very sad.

[The novel inspired the 2015 film. There's a TV Tropes page on the film and novel, with some interesting tidbits.]

I'm sending this book to BCer ghir in Hawaii as part of the US/Canada wishlist-tag game. Enjoy!

Arrived safely. Thank you for the tag.

Oh, good googly, GoryDetails's review sounded so familiar and that is because I had the same reaction. Yup, I have already read this book and completely forgot. My apologies for making you send this book my way. Will send it on its way to find a new reader.

Butterfly garden.

This book is registered at BookCrossing.com to track its journey through this world. You can make a journal entry (anonymously, if you like) to say you found it, then read it and/or pass it on for someone else to enjoy. Thank you!