by Caro De Robertis
Algonquin Books
5/13/2025, hardcover
SKU: 9781643756875
From the acclaimed novelist, a first-of-its-kind, deeply personal, and moving oral history of a generation of trans and gender nonconforming elders of color--from leading activists to artists to ordinary citizens--who tell their own stories of breathtaking courage, cultural innovations, and acts of resistance.
So Many Stars knits together the voices of trans, nonbinary, genderqueer, and two-spirit elders of color as they share authentic, intimate accounts of how they created space for themselves and their communities in the world. This singular project collects the testimonies of twenty elders, each a glimmering thread in a luminous tapestry, preserving their words for future generations--who can more fully exist in the world today because of these very trailblazers.
De Robertis creates a collective coming-of-age story based on hundreds of hours of interviews, offering rare snapshots of ordinary life: kids growing up, navigating family issues and finding community, coming out and changing how they identify over the years, building movements and weathering the AIDS crisis, and sharing wisdom for future generations. Often narrating experiences that took place before they had the array of language that exists today to self-identify beyond the gender binary, this generation lived through remarkable changes in American culture, shaped American culture, and yet rarely takes center stage in the history books. Their stories feel particularly urgent in the current political moment, but also remind readers that their experiences are not new, and that young trans and nonbinary people today belong to a long lineage.
The anecdotes in these pages are riveting, joyful, heartbreaking, full of personality and wisdom, and artfully woven together into one immersive narrative. In De Robertis's words, So Many Stars shares "behind-the-scenes tales of what it meant--and still means--to create an authentic life, against the odds."
Reviews:
"Gratitude to Caro De Robertis. They have given us the gift of historicizing these generations for whom discovery came from within and propelled them forward. These are stories of how individuals grew communities despite negation and violence, and how they continue to resist organized and amplified backlash, how they made so many other lives possible and created a new world." -- Sarah Schulman, author of The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity and Let the Record Show
"So Many Stars is the type of book that scares bigots and fascists - which means the rest of us should read it. With unwavering honesty and tenderness, Caro De Robertis interlaces twenty life stories that dismantle the calculated lies that are used to marginalize and persecute trans, nonbinary, genderqueer, and two-spirit people. Put So Many Stars in as many schools as possible. These stories attest to a proud history, an enduring strength, and the unquestionable humanity of their narrators. They provide us with the tip of an iceberg that has been banished from view for too long. This is a curated collection of experiences that speaks to the breadth of a community. All the right-wing demonization and hysteria are debunked by this book." -- Rasheed Newson, author of My Government Means to Kill Me
About the Author:
Caro De Robertis is a writer of Uruguayan origins, the author of six novels, including The Palace of Eros, Cantoras, and more. Their books have been translated into seventeen languages and have received numerous honors, including two Stonewall Book Awards, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, which they were the first openly nonbinary writer to receive. De Robertis is also an award-winning literary translator and a professor at San Francisco State University. They live in Oakland, California with their two children.