Paul Takes the Form of A Mortal Girl

Author: Andrea Lawlor

California

Published on 9 April 2026 by PAN MACMILLAN (Picador) in the United Kingdom as part of 'the Picador Collection' series.

Paperback | 352 pages
197 x 130 | 242g

‘One of the most exciting - and one of the most fun - novels of the decade’ - Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to YouIt’s 1993 and Paul Polydoris tends bar at the only gay club in a university town thrumming with politics and partying. He studies queer theory, has a lesbian best friend, makes zines, and is a flâneur with a rich dating life. But Paul’s also got a secret: he’s a shapeshifter. Oscillating wildly from Riot Grrrl to leather cub, Women’s Studies major to trade, Paul transforms his body at will in a series of adventures that take him from Iowa City to Boystown to Provincetown and finally to San Francisco – a journey through the deep queer archives of struggle and pleasure.

Andrea Lawlor’s debut novel offers a speculative history of early ’90s identity politics during the heyday of ACT UP and Queer Nation. Paul Takes the Form of A Mortal Girl is a riotous, razor-sharp bildungsroman whose hero/ine wends his way through a world gutted by loss, pulsing with music, and opening into an array of intimacy and connections.

Now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.

‘Playful, sexy, smart’ - Carmen Maria Machado‘Evocative and urgent . . . and very funny’ – The Observer‘“90s punk Orlando”. . . a pretty wild ride’ – Dazed & Confused‘Sexy, outrageous, completely compulsive’ – Daisy Johnson