Subtitle: 'The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl'.

From the front cover:

'''Riveting, cleanly written, and brilliantly researched.'
-Natalie Angier, New York Times Book Review'

From the back cover:

'THE BESTSELLING ACCOUNT OF THE NOW FAMOUS 'TWINS' CASE THAT BECAME A TOUCHSTONE IN THE DEBATES ON GENDER IDENTITY AND NATURE VERSUS NURTURE

In 1967, after a twin baby boy suffered a botched circumcision, his family agreed to a radical treatment that would alter his gender. The case would become one of the most famous in modern medicine - and a total failure. As Nature Made Him tells the extraordinary story of David Reimer, who, when finally informed of his medical history, made the decision to live as a male. A macabre tale of medical arrogance, it is first and foremost a human drama of one man's - and one family's - amazing survival in the face of terrible odds.

'Fascinating ... The book succeeds on many levels - as the gripping story of a child and his family, as well as a carefully documented examination of how an unproven theory became accepted as standard treatment.'
-Washington Post Book World

John Colapinto has written for Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Esquire, Mademoiselle, US Weekly, and Rolling Stone, where the landmark National Magazine Award-winning article that was the basis for As Nature Made Him first appeared. He is also the author of the novel About the Author. He lives in New York City with his wife and son.'

This is a trade paperback copy published in 2006 by Harper Perennial. The book was originally published in 2001.

I've been interested in this story for quite a while, ever since I first heard about it in a documentary on TV years ago. Last year I got hold of Colapinto's article about David Reimer (the one mentioned in the blurb above) and when looking into that a little more discovered that a book had also been written about it. Since then I've been wanting very much to read the book, and now I will do so very soon.

I bought this book from an amazon marketplace seller, like a month ago. It's taken forever to arrive, but it finally did today.

I read this book this summer, but I'm such a slow journaller that I'm only getting around to writing a JE now. Shame on me. :-( Better late than never. I read this book in August - I brought it with me on vacation, to our cabin in the mountains. But I would have been completely enthralled by this book no matter where I'd have read it.

I think I have to say that this was the best book I read in 2008. It was a fantastically gripping read. The story itself is beyond fascinating. I can't really describe how intensely it held my interest. Just fantastic ... amazing. A tragic story. The thought that it's true completely boggles my mind. Amazing, that's the only word for it. This story is just amazing. The book is also immensely researched, the author has talked to pretty much everyone. It's wonderful. I so believed in everything I read, memories, emotions, everything rang so true off the page. The book is extremely well written. Colapinto is a very talented writer. There's nothing about this book that I didn't love. I wish I could give it more than ten stars. A fantastic read. I literally could not put it down. I stayed up till late reading it. Amazing. :-)

I will be keeping this book in my Permanent Collection. May be available for loans, though. Maybe a bookring one day. We'll see. :-)