I’ve had Annabel by Kathleen Winter and Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides sitting in my reading stack for ages and yet the just released Golden Boy by Abigail Tarttelin is the first novel I’ve read about a hermaphrodite (referred to more commonly now as ‘intersex’).

It’s the story of Max Walker. He’s the ‘golden boy’ – attractive, intelligent, athletic, the perfect son, the perfect friend and the guy that all the girls at school have a crush on. Max lives with his parents, Karen and Steve, and his brother, Daniel. His mother, Karen, is a highly successful criminal lawyer, who works hard to maintain a facade of ‘having it all’. Steve is also a successful lawyer, so much so that he is running for Parliament.

“…..i don’t smoke pot. i can’t anyway, even if i wanted to, because of dad and Mum. They needed me to keep out of trouble, to be good. They are lawyers, and they work hard and are in the paper a lot…. People would write about us if i did something like that. Mum and i call it ‘doing a Prince Harry.’ ‘don’t do a Prince Harry on me’ she says. i wouldn’t do it anyway.”

And no, those are not typos, that’s a direct quote.

But not all is perfect in the Walkers carefully constructed lives. They have a secret. Max was born intersex. He identifies as a boy and has been raised as such. When a family friend abuses Max’s trust in the most horrific way, Max and his parents are forced to consider the nature of their well-kept secret. Continue reading →