Some Strange Music Draws Me In

By: Griffin Hansbury (Author), 2025, Paperback “I couldn’t stop reading it. Hard, smart, and sweet.” ―Eileen Myles, author of a “Working Life”From an award-winning author, this provocative novel tells an emotionally gripping story about friendship, family, and transgender awakening in a working-class American town. It’s the summer of 1984 in Swaffham, Massachusetts, when Mel (short for Melanie) meets Sylvia, a tough-as-nails trans woman whose shameless swagger inspires Mel’s dawning self-awareness. But Sylvia’s presence sparks fury among her neighbors and throws Mel into conflict with her mother and best friend. Decades later, in 2019, Max (formerly Mel) is on probation from his teaching job for, ironically, defying speech codes around trans identity. Back in Swaffham, he must navigate life as part of a fractured family and face his own role in the disasters of the past. Populated by a cast of unforgettable characters, Some Strange Music Draws Me In is a propulsive page turner about mu