Trans author Shon Faye announces that her new book, Love in Exile, is on the way
British author and activist Shon Faye. (Jecca Blac/Provided)
Trans writer and LGBTQ+ activist Shon Faye’s latest book, Love in Exile, will hit shelves early in the new year.
Penguin Books announced on Thursday (5 September) that Love in Exile is due to be published on 6 February. It will delve into the idea of what love is and how society narrows its legitimacy and definition.
Described as “wise, funny, unsparing, and suffused with radical clarity,” the book’s main aim is to discover the meaning of love, whatever form it takes. “Love, Faye argues, is as much a collective question as a personal one, yet our collective ideals of love have developed in a society which is itself profoundly sick and loveless,” the publishers said.
“In this highly politicised terrain, boundaries are purposefully drawn to keep some in, and keep others out. Those who exist outside them are ignored, denigrated, exiled.”
The new book follows Faye’s other award-winning work, The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice, in which she delved into the so-called culture war of trans rights. It was critically acclaimed as a “cry for compassion” in a world where trans people are continually drawn into so-called “debates” about their existence, and humiliated in the process.
Her latest work has been praised as “uncommonly wise and honest” and a “masterpiece from start to finish”.
Fellow author Torrey Peters said: “Shon Faye can break your heart and change your mind in the same moment. Love In Exile is a parade of these instances, a book that, for lovers in this era, will be both a comfort and a sword.”
Speaking to PinkNews about the book in 2022, Faye said: ““Being trans gives you a unique look at things sometimes, because of the [obstacles] we go through that others maybe don’t. In many ways, I wasn’t given the chance to practise love in a healthy way and as a result I have had to go on a learning curve.
“I’m interested in creating work that speaks to a lot of people as I think [the] topic of love does.”
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