Continental Divide - Paperback

by Alex Myers (Author)

Go West, Young Man. Isn't that the advice every east coast boy has considered at least once in his life?

At nineteen, almost twenty, Ron Bancroft thinks those words sound pretty good. Newly out as transgender, Ron finds himself adrift: kicked out by his family, jilted by his girlfriend, unable to afford to return to college in the fall. So he heads out to Wyoming for a new start, a chance to prove that--even though he was raised as a girl, even though everyone in Boston thinks of him as transgender--he can live as a man. A real man.

In Wyoming, he finds what he was looking for: rugged terrain, wranglers, a clean slate. He also stumbles into a world more dangerous than he imagined, one of bigotry and violence. And he falls for an intriguing young woman, who seems as interested in him as he is in her. Thus begins Ron's true adventure, a search not for the right place in America, but the right place within himself to find truth, happiness, and a sense of belonging.

Front Jacket

Ron Bancroft comes out as a transgender man at nineteen. His parents reject him. His girlfriend rejects him. Feeling trapped and miserable, Ron decides to leave Harvard and travel west to work on a Wyoming ranch to prove to his parents, his ex, and himself that he can live unequivocally as a man. As he embarks on this journey of independence, Ron must deal with the constant fear and anxiety of being discovered as a trans man as he enters a world more dangerous than he ever imagined. Alex Myer's Continental Divide is a touching and personal coming-of-age novel that follows Ron's struggles to forge his identity, despite the dangers he faces in a new and uninviting world. Myers is the author of Revolutionary, "a remarkable novel" (The New York Times), about America's first female solider.

Author Biography

Author of Revolutionary, Alex Myers was born and raised in western Maine. Since high school, Alex has campaigned for transgender rights. As a female-to-male transgender person, Alex began his transition at Phillips Exeter Academy (returning his senior year as a man after attending for three years as a woman) and was the first transgender student in that academy's history. Alex was also the first openly transgender student at Harvard, and worked to change the university's nondiscrimination clause to include gender identity. After earning a master's in religion from Brown University, Alex began a career as a high school English teacher. Along the way, he earned an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. He currently lives in New Hampshire with his wife and two cats.