Who TF Did I Marry?!

At 74-years-old, Barrington Jedidiah Walker — Barry to his friends — is fly af. Born in Antigua, he’s made a home for himself in Britain, where he’s raised a family and gained a reputation for having a flamboyantly fun personality and looking fly in retro suits. He’s a father, grandfather, and husband. He’s also someone who’s been having a secret relationship with his childhood friend Morris — who he sees as his soulmate — for decades . Though his wife Carmel suspects he’s been cheating on her, she doesn’t know how deep the feelings go. It’s a new day, in a new era of greatly increased queer friendliness —but the lasting effects of living in fear as a queer man all your life are hard to shake.

In her new memoir, the bestselling author of The Recovering and The Empathy Exams writes about reassembling herself after marriage. She looks at how life is as a woman with multiple identities — mother, lover, teacher — and having a daughter has created a sort of second, outside consciousness. Apart from looking at who she is since her marriage, Jamison also looks at the long-lasting influence of her parents’ union.

In this award-nominated book, Yejide and Akin have been married since college. Cultural expectations of Nigeria at the time predict that Akin will take on several wives, but the couple decide that polygamy isn’t the way to go. But when Yejide doesn’t become pregnant after a few years, her family shows shows up with a young woman meant to be Akin’s second wife. Suddenly, Yejide is desperate to become pregnant no matter the cost.

“What better way to explore gender and its role in marriage than to have a cis couple switch bodies?” — McElroy, probably. Here, Eli and Elizabeth — whose names have some interesting implications — are sharing an apartment in Bulgaria when Eli wakes one day to realize he’s swapped bodies with his wife. On top of that, she’s missing. He goes on a search across Europe and America to find Elizabeth, who is now living as him. He also questions how this new transformation will impact their marriage.