A Stranger in Town

Discovered sleeping in a church and promptly nicknamed after the place they are found, Pew, the narrator and namesake of Catherine Lacey’s new novel, is difficult to classify: androgynous and ethnically ambiguous, itinerant, and without memory of either past or origin. They appear darker or lighter, older or younger, depending on who’s looking. Assumed to be a traumatized adolescent, Pew is taken in by a God-fearing family of four, keen to exercise their Christian duty. The problems of the book begin in the face of Pew’s inability or unwillingness to answer the question: “What are you?” To themselves,