Fairest - A Memoir Book

RELEASE DATE - 3 JUNE 2021

Finalist for the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction

"Talusan sails past the conventions of trans and immigrant memoirs."
The New York Times Book Review

"A ball of light hurled into the dark undertow of migration and survival."
Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

A love story with the heart of Austen classics and a reflective journey of becoming that shift our own perceptions of romance, identity, gender, and the fairness of life.

Fairest is a memoir about a precocious boy with albinism, a sun child from a rural Philippine village, who would grow up to become a woman in America.

Coping with the strain of parental neglect and the elusive promise of U.S. citizenship, Talusan found comfort from her devoted grandmother, a grounding force as she was treated by others with special preference or public curiosity.

As an immigrant to the United States, Talusan came to be perceived as white, and further access to elite circles of privilege but required Talusan to navigate through the complex spheres of race, class, sexuality, and queerness. Questioning the boundaries of gender, Talusan realised she did not want to be confined to a prescribed role as a man, and transitioned to become a woman, despite the risk of losing a man she deeply loved.

Throughout her journey, Talusan shares poignant and powerful episodes of desirability and love that will remind readers of works such as Call Me By Your Name and Giovanni's Room.

"A searching, rigorously self-examining memoir, Fairest grapples beautifully and seriously with questions of gender, race, colourism, migration, colonialism, queerness, privilege, class, and belonging. A debut luminous with insight."
R.O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries

"Fairest is a powerful panoptic memoir which frames the totality of a life being lived, not just the fractions of it. It's a love story, a queer story, an immigrant story, an American story, a coming of age story--a revolutionary story. A most necessary and important book in a world which aims to other us from not just who we are, but who we are meant to become."
Amber Tamblyn, author of Era of Ignition

"Meredith Talusan has written a truly brilliant memoir with sparkling sentences, navigating incredibly complex questions of privilege with ease and candour. Everything here feels true and necessary--a rare literary accomplishment. I'll recommend this book to my queer family and my Arkansan family alike, and to students who want to know why we continue to believe in the power of memoir."
Garrard Conley, author of Boy Erased