Middlesex: A Novel

Jeffrey Eugenides

Sep 2002 · Sold by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

About this ebook

Middlesex is the winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

A dazzling triumph from the bestselling author of The Virgin Suicides--the astonishing tale of a gene that passes down through three generations of a Greek-American family and flowers in the body of a teenage girl.

"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver's license...records my first name simply as Cal."

So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of l967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.

Ratings and reviews

Hands down one the the TOP FIVE books I have ever read. I really enjoyed this book, couldn't put it down and read it in about a week's time! The main character, Cal's "narrative voice" is so strong and character well developed, it makes for an interesting and easy read. He comes across as honest, humorous, and realistic, nothing contrived. This is the kind of book that sticks to your ribs -- you won't soon forget it after reading because the subject matter is so unlike any other work of fiction out there. I appreciated the way the author tied up every loose end and left no stone unturned. I can't say enough about this book!

just finished it, love it, but too much in my head now overwhelmed by so many dramatic turning points in this story... I will need to wait for a week to digest it before I can describe how and what I feel now ..

This is the way a good book should be written. I will be anticipating the authors other works although every story is different so I'll just have to trust his talent.

About the author

Jeffrey Eugenides was born in Detroit and attended Brown and Stanford Universities. His first novel, The Virgin Suicides, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux to great acclaim in 1993, and was adapted into a film by Sofia Coppola. Middlesex received the 2003 Pulitzer Prize, and was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and France's Prix Medicis, and was selected for Oprah's Book Club. It has sold more than four million copies.