Notes from a regicide

Fellman (The Two Doctors Gorski) paints an intimate and vivid portrait of a queer family weathering a dystopian world in this triumphant sci-fi novel. Some thousand years in the future, New York City journalist Griffon Keming mourns his late adoptive parents, Zaffre and Etoine, who took him in when he was a closeted 15-year-old escaping abuse. After he unearths a memoir that Etoine left behind, "Autoportrait, Blessé" ("Self-Portrait, Injured"), written decades earlier from the jail cell where he waited to be hanged for regicide (a hanging which didn't happen), Griffon attempts to reconcile his recollections of his parents with the life he didn't know they lived before they adopted him. Etoine and Zaffre, both trans, were artists, refugees, and revolutionaries from the city-state of Stephensport, now a dictatorship. Alternating perspectives between Griffon and Etoine, the narrative slowly untangles the history of this found family. Throughout, Fellman explores themes of political dissidence and the power and limitations of art, especially as a means of giving voice to the oppressed. Prescient, emotionally nuanced, and remarkably well told, this offers plenty to sink one's teeth into. Agent: Kate McKean, Howard Morhaim Literary. (Apr.)

Griffon's larger-than-life adopted parents, famed artists Zaffre and Etoine, have died, leaving their son to fill the huge holes they left behind as he tries to learn who they were before they became his parents. Griffon's journey through the writings Etoine left behind tell the story of a mythical country, mired in the past but set in the future, where their trans identities were an accepted part of the social order, but their desire to reform the ossified aristocracy ended in a rebellion that shattered the magic holding the kingdom together and left the king dead by Etoine's hand. Reconciling the former revolutionaries with his loving but broken parents brings them back to life for Griffon one last time and also tells the story of chosen family members who nurtured one another despite their demons. VERDICT Fellman (The Two Doctors Górski) writes a literary sci-fi novel about trans identity that will appeal to fans of Charlie Jane Anders or Izzy Wasserstein's These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart and those who were fascinated with the play on histories and identities in T. Kingfisher's "Sworn Soldier" series.--Marlene Harris