FOR TODAY I AM A BOY

Editor's Choice in the 2.9 issue of the New York Times Book Review! A breathtaking debut novel about four second generation Chinese sisters. One of whom happens to be a boy.

Peter Huang and his sisters—elegant Adele, shrewd Helen, and Bonnie the bon vivant—grow up in a house of many secrets, then escape the confines of small-town Ontario and spread from Montreal to California to Berlin. Peter's own journey is obstructed by playground bullies, masochistic lovers, Christian ex-gays, and the ever-present shadow of his Chinese father. At birth, Peter had been given the Chinese name juan chaun, powerful king. The exalted only son in the middle of three daughters, Peter was the one who would finally embody his immigrant father's ideal of power and masculinity. But Peter has different dreams: he is certain he is a girl. Sensitive, witty, and stunningly assured, Kim Fu's debut novel lays bare the costs of forsaking one's own path in deference to one laid out by others. For Today I Am a Boy is a coming-of-age tale like no other, and marks the emergence of an astonishing new literary voice. KIMBERLEY FU, 25, holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. Her literary journalism has appeared in the Tyee, Vancouver Review, Vancouver Magazine, This Magazine, Maisonneuve, and Prairie Fire. A former national champion of the French martial art of Savate, she lives in Seattle. In October 2013, FOR TODAY I AM A BOY was selected as one of the books on Barnes & Noble's Discover Great New Writer's list! It became part of just 18 books "chosen for their verve and indelible prose, the author's voice and prodigious talent, for unforgettable characters and the journeys – fictional or not -- that those characters make." The Spring 2014 season for the Discover Great New Writers program runs from February 4, 2014 through May 5, 2014. —Library Journal “Fu's sharp eye and the book's specificity of place (the Huangs live in small-town Canada, where Peter's father does whatever it takes to fit in and the rest of his family lies to him) provide freshness . Although the focus is always Peter, Fu is adept at depicting the shifting alliances between him and his sisters, and at revealing how being an outsider shapes Peter's expectations and options.” —Publishers Weekly