The First Man-Made Man cover

The First Man-Made Man

by Pagan Kennedy

In the 1920s when Laura Dillon felt like a man trapped in a womanʼs body, there were no words to describe her condition; ʺtranssexualsʺ had yet to enter common usage. And there was no known solution to being stuck between the sexes. Laura Dillon did all she could on her own: she cut her hair, dressed in menʼs clothing, bound her breasts with a belt. But in a desperate bid to feel comfortable in her own skin, she experimented with breakthrough technologies that ultimately transformed the human body and revolutionized medicine. From upper-class orphan girl to Oxford lesbian, from post-surgery romance with Roberta Cowell (an early male-to-female) to self-imposed exile in India, Michael Dillonʼs incredible story reveals the struggles of early transsexuals and challenges conventional notions of what gender really means. Also includes information on Roberta Cowell, Christine Jorgensen, Institute for Sexual Science (Berlin), estrogen, testosterone, etc.

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Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?