The Cult Classic That Captures the Grind of Dead-End Jobs

Many writers have to wait until old age to see their work reissued. Imogen Binnie, whose debut novel, Nevada, came out in 2013, only had to wait nine years. Nevada was first released by Topside Press, an indie publisher that was run by trans editors and that put out primarily trans literature. It became a word-of-mouth hit, generating what the writer Casey Plett calls a “communal response,” especially among trans and queer readers. After Topside folded in 2017, taking the book out of print, fans kept Nevada alive—discussing it, recommending it, and distributing it via a site called Have You Read Nevada? Eventually, one such fan, the editor Jackson Howard, reached out to Binnie, which led to Farrar, Straus & Giroux reissuing the book this summer.

It’s easy to see why it has reached cult status. is a delight to read. Its protagonist, Maria Griffiths, is of Binnie, the writer Harron Walker feeling frustrated with “Maria’s myopic takes [and] habit of framing her own life as transgender experience,” and then realizing that “Maria’s myopia is the point.” Maria is stuck in her own existence; bears witness to her stuck-ness. It was among the first contemporary novels to treat a trans woman’s story in a complicated, nuanced way, not relying on transition for storytelling momentum or treating it as a guaranteed happy ending. Instead, Binnie casually refers to Maria’s transition as a “Very Special Episode,” and then, by and large, lets her protagonist avoid mentioning it again.