Middlesex

The book is MIDDLESEX and the author is Jeffrey Eugenides.
In this age of transgender surgeries -- which have been publicized in books, films and even on televisions's Dancing with the Stars (thanks to Chaz Bono)--- I thought I was ready for anything. But I was totally knocked out by Eugenides' book, which is narrated by a hermaphrodite. I had seen pictures in historic and medical textbooks, but it never occured to me to wonder about such a person's interior, emotional life. Eugenides takes on this neglected subject and runs with it. First of all, he thoroughly educates the reader on the condition without ever becoming dry or pedantic. But more important, he takes us inside the mind of a young woman who hits puberty in a maelstrom of confusion as she realizes that she is different but doesn't understand how or why.
As I read, I became so involved with this young person that the act of violence committed on her/him in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park was heart- breaking. After 529 dense pages, the author fashions something more than we could hope for -- a happy ending. In my humble opinion, Eugenides is a genius.