| Description | A funny, moving and poignant exploration of modern romance and the allure of domesticity from the Polari-prize-winning author of Bellies Chosen as a ‘Best Book of 2025’ by Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Stylist, Elle, Dazed, Vogue, AnOther, and GQ 'One of the UK’s most perceptive young novelists with her finger firmly on the pulse of contemporary behaviour' Guardian 'Riveting, funny and devastating' Shon Faye, bestselling author of The Transgender Issue Max didn’t mean to fall for Vincent – a corporate lawyer and hobby baker whose trad friendship group are a world away from her life as a trans woman. But after years of bad dates and dysphoria he’s a breath of fresh air. Their connection seems genuine, his care feels real. But Vincent is carrying his own baggage. On his gap year in Thailand a decade prior, he vies for the attention of a gorgeous traveller, Alex, with secrets of her own. Is Vincent really the new face of the Enlightened Man, or will the ghosts of his past sabotage his and Max’s happiness? Disappoint Me is an incisive reckoning with forgiveness and the complexity of modern relationships, told with Nicola Dinan’s trademark wit and heart.
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“One of the sharpest and most emotionally vulnerable novels on the complicated dynamic of dating cisgender straight men as a trans woman.”—Autostraddle (7 New Trans Novels to Read this Summer) “Dinan writes like some kind of demigod. Her fictions make thinkable new realities for how we live and what we might expect from each other.”—Torrey Peters, bestselling author of Detransition, Baby ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR (SO FAR): Elle, Vogue, BookRiot You can fall in love with an outline, you can even make a home with one, but there will come a time where you can’t deny the bones their flesh. A person is no fewer than two things. Thirty years old with a lifetime of dysphoria and irritating exes rattling around in her head, Max is plagued by a deep dissatisfaction. Shouldn't these be the best years of her life? Why doesn't it feel that way? After taking a spill down the stairs at a New Year’s Eve party, she decides to make some changes. First: a stab at good old-fashioned heteronormativity. Max thinks she’s found the answer in Vincent. While his corporate colleagues, trad friends, and Chinese parents never pictured their son dating a trans woman, he cares for Max in a way she’d always dismissed as a foolish fantasy. But he is also carrying baggage of his own. When the fall-out of a decades-old entanglement resurfaces, Max must decide what forgiveness really means. Can we be more than our worst mistakes? Is it possible to make peace with the past? Funny, sharp, and poignant, Disappoint Me is a sweeping exploration of love, loss, trans panic, race, millennial angst, and the relationships—familial and romantic—that make us who we are. |
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