Orlanda
A Novel
Seven Stories Press · Print & ebook · September 30, 2025
The groundbreaking novel about a woman whose subconscious mind splinters and finds itself in the body of a young man, from the author of I Who Have Never Known Men.
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- Who it’s for
- A lyrical, psychologically curious novel about identity, desire, and the selves we struggle to inhabit.
- Themes
- Identity and self-discovery, Self-acceptance
- Genres
- LGBTQ+ Fiction, Feminist Fiction, Magical Realism
Nearest books
Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved.
Orlando: a BiographyVirginia Woolf67% matchShares Feminist Fiction
Private RitesJulia Armfield55% match
The Marriage Portrait: Reese's Book ClubMaggie O'Farrell53% match
Swimming in ParisColombe Schneck54% match
The AlternativesCaoilinn Hughes53% match
Any ManAmber Tamblyn54% match
Jane in LoveRachel Givney52% match
StrangersBelle Burden52% match
For younger readers: I Shall Never Fall in Love, A Scatter of Light, Empress of the World
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Start with this bookAbout this book
The groundbreaking novel about a woman whose subconscious mind splinters and finds itself in the body of a young man, from the author of I Who Have Never Known Men. Now in paperback with a new foreword by Isle McElroy for the 30th anniversary of its original publication. One afternoon in a café across the Gare du Nord train station in Paris, Aline Berger, a literature professor, struggles to re-read Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, when an odd feeling comes over her.
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Suddenly, part of her consciousness splits off and finds itself in the body of an attractive young man named Lucien Lèfrene, who works as a rock journalist. In this newfound body, Aline’s splintered mind names themselves Orlanda in homage to Virginia Woolf as a woman who has now become a man. Orlanda begins to follow Aline. And when the two meet again in Belgium, Aline subconsciously sheds her prim tendencies for a more assertive presence, as she begins to understand that Orlanda was born from her own psyche. Orlanda is the assertive, confident, and amorous person, who loves men unabashedly, that Aline has always aspired to be but could never become. The more time the two spend together, the less time they can stand to be apart. This lyrical novel is a stunning portrait of a woman who is forced to confront every part of her soul and embrace herself fully.
A Self in Motion
A lyrical, psychologically curious novel about identity, desire, and the selves we struggle to inhabit.
Come here for
- A playful literary conversation with Virginia Woolf’s Orlando
- A woman confronting the confident self she has long kept at bay
Expect
- A surreal premise grounded in intimate psychological change
- Questions of gender, desire, and self-acceptance
Where it sits
| Magical Realism | 26% |
|---|---|
| Feminist Fiction | 24% |
| LGBTQ+ Fiction | 24% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Literary Fiction
- Transgender Fiction
- 21st-Century French Fiction
- Authors
- Jacqueline Harpman
- Publisher
- Seven Stories Press
- Published
- September 30, 2025
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Identity and self-discovery · Self-acceptance
- Reading lane
- Literary Fiction