FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARDLonglisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Non-fictionHow do you tell the real story of someone misremembered - an icon and idol - alongside your own? Jenn Shapland's celebrated debut is both question and answer: an immersive surprising exploration of one of America's most beloved writers alongside a genre-defying examination of identity queerness memory obsession and love. Shapland is a graduate student when she first uncovers letters written to Carson McCullers by a woman named Annemarie. Though Shapland recognizes herself in the letters which are intimate and unabashed in their feelings she does not see McCullers as history has portrayed her. Her curiosity gives way to fixation not just with this newly discovered side of McCullers's life but with how we tell queer love stories. Why Shapland asks are the stories of women paved over by others' narratives? What happens when constant revision is required of queer women trying to navigate and self-actualize in straight spaces? And what might the tracing of McCullers's life?her history her secrets her legacy?reveal to Shapland about herself?In smart illuminating prose Shapland interweaves her own story with McCullers's to create a vital new portrait of one of our nation's greatest literary treasures and shows us how the writers we love and the stories we tell about ourselves make us who we are. Language: English