Testimony of a Shifter

by Emma Pérez

Imprisoned by the totalitarian government, Dr. Benito Espinoza practices for his weekly interrogations by recounting his story to his thirteen-year-old daughter. He tells her about turning his back on his ability to shift his gender from male to female--to Alejandra--to become a scholar in the Grand Library. Most academics are Residents who inherited their seats and believe Descendants like Ben don't have the intellectual ability to be a person of letters.

Ben conforms to the laws against transmuting, so he manages to secure a place in the library. His life's purpose is to prove Descendants are as capable as Residents. But an encounter with a clever, beautiful Descendant leads to his unwitting participation in the rebellion against the Impresario and his White Guards. Soon the shifter is involved with the Rebels, trying to save a younger generation of Descendants and shifters from the horrific experiments and violence perpetrated against them.

In a non-linear narrative in which "time is false," author and scholar Emma Pérez offers a fascinating speculative novel about alternate histories, while pondering race, discrimination and transgender people.

Genres: LGBT, Dystopia, Fantasy

198 pages, Paperback

Published October 31, 2023

About the author

Emma Pérez, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Texas/El Paso, has written numerous essays in feminist theory and is author of the novel, Gulf Dreams.

Reviews

[Raychel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Benito Espinoza may look like a normal man visiting the Grand Library, but he is not just what he appears. Ben is a shifter—an individual able to switch back-and-forth between male, female, and nonbinary bodies—and under the totalitarian Impresario and his White Guards, shifting is a criminal offense. Although he is unwilling, Ben becomes embroiled in a shifter-led rebellion that puts not only his life at risk but endangers the precarious balance barely holding their society together. A fixture of queer Chicana feminist studies, historian and professor Emma Pérez offers a scathing look at where society could be headed in the midst of “woke wars” with the criminalization of trans and gender nonconforming bodies and the desire to suppress the Other. For fans of Ursula K. Le Guin and Margaret Atwood, Testimony of a Shifter is the queer, feminist dystopian novel we’ve been searching for.

**Originally published in Booklist 2023

[Jane Jackman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put this down. I loved the way the characters were drawn, particularly the narrator. The dialogue was compelling and the wry humor appealed to me. The concept of shifting was entirely new to me and became reality through the writing. From the book, "It’s a sensation that the body’s memory anticipates, and the mind refuses the memory, but the body insists and the hurt looms. The physical pain is near, and flesh is so imprinted that it expects pain because flesh doesn’t want to be fooled again.” This writer's understanding of the body and trauma are so accurately articulated.
Great read ! 'Bravo!!!