GRANGE author Paul Rand will release his debut novel set in a dystopian future without male or female genders next month.
Paul took inspiration for called 'Joe with an E' from a 2018 ITV drama about a transgender girl. The release date of June 13 comes four and a half years after finishing his first draft, having secured a deal with Beaten Track Publishing.
He said: "I began to think, what if it was cisgender children who were the odd ones out, who felt the pressure to keep their true identity a secret? What would that story look like?”
Paul with a stack of his books on arrival day (Image: Submitted)
The book is set in a future Britain populated by genetically engineered 'neuts' - no males, no females. When biologically 'abnormal' male and female foetuses develop in the pregnancy pods, the policy is to destroy them.
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However, some are rescued by an underground network called DiG (Different is Good). As the children grow up, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep their differences hidden, and the main character Joe can no longer pass himself off as a neut.
The story is told through fourteen-year-old Joe, his neut parent Georgy, and also contains extracts from a fertility doctor’s logbook from when the neuts were first engineered.
The front cover of 'Joe with an E' (Image: Submitted)
K E Salisbury, author of 'The Face That Pins You,' said: "A group of young people are trapped in a future where acceptance comes at the price of life-changing surgery. Paul Rand's dystopian thriller is thought-provoking and gripping by turns, with the science of genetics and fertility cleverly woven into an adrenaline-fuelled quest for survival."
"At Joe with an E's core is a clever, convincing concept of reversal with echoes of Noughts and Crosses but in terms of gender-identity instead of race," said author of 'Happiness Seeker' and 'Igloo' Jennifer Burkinshaw.
Paul is planning two launch events for his book, at 7pm on Wednesday, June 12 he will have an online conversation about his book on Zoom with fellow author Sarah Hagger-Holt. Details on how to join that call are on his website.
On Sunday, June 16, there will be a launch party a the Gin Pig in Grange. Paul will read some extracts from his novel.
He will have a stall at Kendal Pride next month.
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