-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
An evocative debut novel of trans-masculinity, addiction, and the pain and joy of becoming.
Ponyboy unravels in his Paris apartment. Cut to the bar. Cut to the back room. Ponyboy is strung out and struggling. He is falling into the widening chasm between who he is―trans, electrically so―and the blank canvas his girlfriend, Baby, wants him to be.
Cut to Berlin. Ponyboy sinks deeper into drugs and falls for Gabriel, all the while pursued by a photographer hungry for the next hot thing. As his relationships crumble, he overdoses.
Cut to open sky. In a rehab back home in Iowa, Ponyboy is his mother's son. In precise, atmospheric prose, Eliot Duncan's debut novel lays bare the innate splendor, joy, and ache of becoming one's self.
"[Duncan's] Ponyboy grows increasingly empathetic, while his sometimes melancholy story, like his habit, in the end proves to be addictive. A first novelist to watch very closely." ―Booklist (starred review)
"A troubled protagonist deals with addiction and his own becoming in this expressive, semiautobiographical bildungsroman…[Duncan] allows his protagonist to emerge as real and true―and alive." ―Kirkus Reviews
"Eliot Duncan's melancholic transboy swagger sparkles in this classic story of a dissolute bookish Midwesterner who crashes through Europe, falling in and out of love and stargazing from the gutter. An astonishing first novel." ―Andrea Lawlor, author of Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
"Ponyboy reads like one of those unforgettable nights in your twenties. Duncan captures the optimism that accompanies the allure of Paris, the high of substances, and the sense that anything can happen when the sun falls. Read this book to remember that, no matter how bad the hangover will be, the best is yet to come." ―Elias Rodriques, author of All the Water I've Seen Is Running
This information about Ponyboy was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Eliot Duncan is a United States–born writer and artist. He is the cofounder of the international queer collective Slanted House and a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He lives in London.
If you liked Ponyboy, try these:
by Linn Ullmann
Published 2026
Called a "masterpiece" (Ali Smith), this stunning novel explores desire and anxiety, beauty and youth, memory and power.
by Seán Hewitt
Published 2026
A stunning debut novel from the acclaimed young Irish poet Seán Hewitt, reminiscent of Garth Greenwell and Justin Torres in the intensity of its evocation of sexual awakening.
by Tony Tulathimutte
Published 2025
From the Whiting and O. Henry–winning author of Private Citizens ("the first great millennial novel," New York Magazine), an electrifying novel-in-stories that follows a cast of intricately linked characters as rejection throws their lives and relationships into chaos.
They say that in the end truth will triumph, but it's a lie.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
