“A small-town hairdresser is not quite what she seems in this . . quietly luminous tale of folksy gender-bending that’s entertaining and authentic” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
Texas, 1930s. Charlie Bader has come of age struggling with urges he doesn’t understand. After his new bride finds him wearing her lingerie, she leaves in disgust and Charlie tries to move on. Landing in Chicago, he soon discovers a community of cross-dressers and starts attending their secret soirees. But when the attack on Pearl Harbor draws the United States into World War II, Charlie volunteers for the army, serving as a dentist and trying once again to leave his obsession with soft clothes behind.
After the war, thanks in part to the army’s faulty record-keeping, Charlie reappears in the small town of Heaven, Indiana—as Charlene. There, Charlene opens a beauty shop where Heaven’s women safely share their stories and secrets as she shampoos, clips, curls, and combs their hair. Charlene manages to keep her story hidden and her sexual desires quiet. But when she falls in love with a female customer, she faces a moment of truth—and risk—unlike any she’s known before.
“A complex and deeply emotional novel which explores a rarely discussed aspect of gender identity in the post-war Midwest . . . captivating.” —Historical Novel Society
