Ponyboy

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2023

''Incendiary . . . A uniquely trans story'' Dazed
''Gutting and glittery'' Nylon
''Eliot Duncan''s melancholic transboy swagger sparkles . . . An astonishing first novel'' ANDREA LAWLOR

In the first of three acts, Ponyboy''s titular narrator - a pill-popping, speed-snorting, trans-masculine lightning bolt - unravels in his Paris apartment. Ponyboy is caught in a messy love triangle between Baby, a lesbian painter who can''t see herself being with someone trans, and Toni, a childhood friend who can actually see Ponyboy for who he is.

Strung out, Ponyboy follows Baby to Berlin where he sinks deeper into drugs and falls for Gabriel, all the while pursued by a megalomaniacal photographer hungry for the next hot thing. As his relationships crumble, Ponyboy unexpectedly wakes up alone in Iowa, his childhood home. Now Ponyboy must finally choose a name.

An evocative novel of art and addiction, self-destruction and re-construction, Ponyboy thrums with the joys, aches and pains of becoming who you are meant to be.