A/S/L by Jeanne Thornton

2026-02-01

A/S/L is a novel about how we try to be free. In the nineties, three teenagers, who have never met in person, collaborate on a video game they are sure will change the world. Eighteen years later, unbeknownst to each other, they find themselves in the same city, three trans women attempting to cope with life through white-collar assimilation, the search for knowledge, and magic. When their paths finally cross again, they find themselves forced to confront their dreams and their delusions. Both formally inventive and emotionally compelling, A/S/L explores nostalgia, technology, friendship, and literature. In this her latest novel, Lambda Literary Award winner Jeanne Thornton exposes the implicit expectations placed on trans women by a society determined to make things easier for cis people.

(Originally published by DeKalb County Public Library)