The Argonauts

Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts is a genre-bending memoir, a work of "autotheory" offering fresh, fierce, and timely thinking about desire, identity, and the limitations and possibilities of love and language. It binds an account of Nelson's relationship with her partner and a journey to and through a pregnancy to a rigorous exploration of sexuality, gender, and "family." An insistence on radical individual freedom and the value of caretaking becomes the rallying cry for this thoughtful, unabashed, uncompromising book.

Reader Fit: Perfect for readers who enjoy reflective memoirs that explore identity, family, love, and the complexity of human relationships.

Why We Carry It: We carry The Argonauts because Maggie Nelson examines gender, sexuality, parenthood, and partnership with intellectual curiosity and emotional honesty. It invites readers to move beyond rigid categories and better understand the many ways people experience identity and family.