Your own identity is something valuable.
Especially when you can't be yourself until you're 31.
Linus Giese is a trans man - he tells his story.
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This changes nothing for you.
Imagine buying a coffee and being asked for your name to write on the mug.
This is nothing special for many people.
For Linus, however, it is a key experience.
It's the moment he uses his real name for the first time.
recognizable to other people.
From there begins a journey to yourself that may never be complete.
Linus tells part of the journey in the book "I am Linus - How I became the man I have always been" (promotional link).
Linus Giese "I am Linus": About the book
Girls play with dolls, while boys play football – a striking and not entirely serious example of gender clichés.
However, they are still in the minds of some people.
People who are different stand out.
You don't belong.
You pretend.
Sometimes they become visible.
Just like Linus.
In the book "I am Linus" Linus tells his life story, how he became the person he always was.
Childhood memories and traumas are told, but also gaining knowledge and hurdles on his way to becoming a trans man.
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In over 30 chapters, Linus tells episodes from his life and lets readers get close to him.
It's about many opposites, courage and fear, self-doubt and a new start.
But also about the name change and political aspects that are difficult for some trans people to overcome.
There was also hostility and threats that Linus experienced on various social media channels.
In some cases, he culminated in hatred on his own doorstep.
Another major issue is acceptance, generally in society, but above all in the workplace.
How does society deal with trans people - which values do we want to stand for?
It becomes clear that there is a gap between the desired and the actual situation.
A sentence that sounds like a matter of course - "I am Linus" - but he divides his life into a before and an after.
In an impressive way, Linus Giese tells why he had to be thirty-one years old to say out loud that he is a man and trans and why his life may not be easier today, but it is much happier.
Blurb / Rowohlt Polaris
Ten books to read to your kids
Ten books to read to your kids
Are you interested in children's and youth books?
Here is a selection that the Academy for Children's Literature recommends.
Linus Giese "I am Linus": The conclusion
The book was a lesson for me and let me immerse myself in the world of trans people.
Using the example of 'Linus', of course.
I was immediately drawn into the book and was able to experience the different emotions.
Linus Giese tells his story so openly, bravely and excitingly that you can hardly put the book down, I don't say that often, but: Listen to this man.
Margarete Stokowksi, blurb/Rowohl Polaris
Courageous - yes, that's what Linus Giese is for me too - he himself doesn't find the word particularly appropriate, as he said at a reading in Munich in early March, but I think it applies anyway.
Opening yourself like this when there is a headwind is powerful.
"I am Linus" is political, approachable, entertaining and worth reading.
Even if there are repetitions and contradictions.
Do you find books that deal with identities exciting?
Then "Blood Book" (promotional link) by Kim de l'Horizon might be something for you.
Kim de l'Horizon received the Book Prize 2022 for this - for the first time the prize went to a gender-appropriate book.
Linus Giese "I am Linus"
2020 Rowohlt Verlag, ISBN: 978-3-499-00312-7
Price: Paperback 15.00 euros, e-book 9.99 euros, 224 pages (deviating from the format)
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Linus Giese
Linus Giese was born in Bremen in 1986.
He is a Germanist and works as a blogger, journalist and bookseller in Berlin.
He writes about books and about his transition.
He has written several texts for the Tagesspiegel
and the
Taz,
among others
.
