In love with a woman but fearful of what might happen at the decisive moment, Cal Stephanides decides to reveal his secret. Because Cal, like Tiresias, has lived as both a woman and a man.
The story begins in 1922, when Cal’s grandparents flee the war and emigrate to the United States. There they settle with relatives and found a saga marked by complex family relationships that will span generations. From this family web, Cal is born, who upon arrival is Calliope, a girl seemingly destined to fulfill the ancient legend of those young women who, upon reaching a certain age, transformed into men.
Over eight decades, the novel traces the intimate history of an immigrant family and, at the same time, the social and cultural evolution of the United States. Middlesex is an ambitious narrative about identity, heritage, gender, and belonging, considered one of the great contemporary attempts to write the Great American Novel.
Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the novel established Jeffrey Eugenides as one of the essential voices of contemporary American fiction.
