Showing results by narrator "Stef Smith" in All Categories

Greer O'Reilly needs to start over. Her partner of 12 years has left her, and she's moved to a blueberry orchard in the Victorian hills. When she and daughter Sophie arrive to take possession, the former owner, 81-year-old jazz lover Charlie Chandler, refuses to move out. Dying and desperate to spend his last days in his old home, the unlikely pair soon form a close bond - one that will offer the strength and inspiration Greer needs.

In those first moments, that admission felt precious to me: it was something that I alone had been deemed worthy enough to carry, and I was grateful. I was grateful to finally know, but I still couldn't speak. Something was wrong, she knew it, but she was entirely unprepared for what he would tell her. Viewed through the lens of a relationship breakdown after one partner discloses to the other that they are transgender, this autofiction spans 18 months: from the moments of first discovery, through the eventual disintegration of their partnership, to the new beginnings of independence.