Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders

In this eloquent, bittersweet memoir, professor and poet Ladin (Psalms) leavens with literary artistry the often incredibly painful story of her gender transition from male to female. She describes her wife forced “to witness the slow erasure of the man she loved,” her children’s fury and bewilderment at the decision that broke apart their family, and the practice of love. In addition, she shares her navigations through and between gender, and her awkward, exhilarating “second adolescence” as she experiments with walking, dressing, and speaking as a woman; her conversations with God, messages from angels, and the surprising consideration and ultimate acceptance from Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women, where she still teaches. Transgender readers will appreciate Ladin’s nuanced, wide-ranging musings on gender and the longings, terrors, successes, and searing losses arising from her struggle to find life worthwhile and to live authentically. The book also offers family and friends of transitioning people insight into the complexity of their loved ones’ motivations and struggles. Readers will be rewarded not only with an expanded understanding of a complicated choice but also a compelling and moving story of a person transitioning, not only from male to female but from a numb, suicidal “nonexistence” to opening the “door of life.” Agent: Kent D. Wolf, Global Literary Management. (Mar.)