A review by booksaremypeople
Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly

4.0

This novel is about Dawn, a genderqueer bookbinder repairing old books at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Dawn lives in Brooklyn with her partner, Lukas, who is eager to experiment with makeup within the safe confines of his home, but not in public. When Dawn finds a love letter in a book she’s repairing, she becomes fixated on learning about who authored it. Was the writer queer? Trans? Dawn’s relationship with Lukas is in flux: how do they want to define the parameters or their relationship if they are still figuring out who they are? And in six short weeks, Dawn will have her gallery debut. This story is told with the post 9/11 with the Iraq War looming in the background and explores issues of gender, identity, hate crimes, art and creativity. It’s a moving and timely story. And this is one of my favorite quotes from the book that sums up Dawn’s internal struggle, “I’ve been trying to find out what can happen, what I can make, if I forget everything the world wants to see when it looks at me.” Thank you to Algonquin for the advanced review copy.