Rezension zu "The Awakening of the Butterfly (English Edition)" von Jutta Swietlinski
MartinaBernsdorfThe novel “The Awakening of the Butterfly” surprised me. Packaged into a lively, brisk, beautifully written romance novel, the author takes up a very current topic.
It is very stressful for me as a lesbian, feminist woman that there are a number of voices, both among feminists and lesbians, that speak out vehemently against trans women, sometimes in a discriminatory, hurtful way, sometimes expressing absurd fears.
I personally believe that people fear what they do not know or understand, which is why it is all the more important to give trans women (or minorities in general) a voice.
The author did this in the context of a beautiful, sensual love story where her lesbian main character unexpectedly falls in love with a trans woman and therefore has to deal with a topic that she previously didn’t have to deal with personally.
The author avoids lecturing, but instead presents us with two likeable young women who fall in love. We accompany them as they find each other. The depth comes naturally when the reader, perhaps for the first time, really starts to think about trans women or even to find out more about them.
A must-read!