Mad Eden

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

From a pathbreaking writer, a thrilling, form-bending novel about a trans healthcare worker whose carefully built life is suddenly imperiled.

Ro and Liam live in a ramshackle cabin in a secluded stretch of Florida. Neither their home nor their sometimes tumultuous relationship is what the world would call perfect, but to Ro - newly diagnosed with autism and working as a patient navigator for people seeking gender-affirming care - their life, despite the deeply hostile political climate, is a kind of paradise.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what shatters their peace. There's Quentin, the unpredictable teenager to whom Liam and Ro are quasi-parents, who visits on his way to college, where he plans to finally start T. There's the appearance of Mad Eden, an online fantasy serial about heroic dragon riders that increasingly becomes Ro's obsession. And then there's a seemingly innocuous patient video call that results in consequences both unexpected and grave. This myriad of circumstances sends Liam and Ro's world spinning toward disaster - unless Ro can become the real-life hero their situation demands without betraying who they are and who they love.

With colossal heart and preternatural skill, Morgan Thomas has crafted a deliciously destabilizing debut novel that challenges us to confront and reconsider questions of language, sex, prejudice, identity, and the shifting scales of morality. Playing with the possible relationship between autism and time to forge an ingenious new kind of storytelling, Mad Eden imagines, with exhilarating courage, how we may yet joyfully live in a precarious world.