The Forbidden Book

by Sacha Lamb

A propulsive, richly textured sophomore novel from the Stonewall Award-winning author of When the Angels Left the Old Country. Sorel is a genderqueer lesbian protagonist who flees her arranged marriage, takes on a male identity, and stumbles into a dangerous underworld of smugglers, forgers, and wicked angels. The exploration of gender dysphoria and bodily autonomy through the lens of Jewish folklore (dybbuks, possession) is genuinely original.