Middlesex

Jeffrey Eugenides’s novel is narrated by Cal Stephanides, who was raised as a girl named Calliope before learning, as a teenager, that he is intersex. To explain how, Cal traces three generations of a Greek American family, from a village in Asia Minor to the factories and suburbs of Detroit. The Pulitzer-winning book blends epic family saga with an intimate coming-of-age story, exploring gender, identity, and the accidents of inheritance.