Eugenia: A Man

Description

In the spring of 1917 an apprentice from the Cumberland Paper Mills, just outside Sydney, was walking along a bush track beside the Lane Cove River when he discovered the partially burnt body of an unidentified woman. The arrest three years later of a 45-year-old Italian, Eugenia Falleni, for murder, led to an investigation that fascinated Australia. Known in the newspapers as the 'Man-Woman Case', the trial revealed that from the time she had left New Zealand and gone to sea as a cabin boy, Eugenia Falleni had lived at least twenty years of her life in the guise of a man. Suzanne Falkiner has written a remarkable story that follows the course of her own efforts to accurately reconstruct Eugenia's extraordinary life, and provides an intriguing account of her subsequent trial.

Suzanne Falkiner is the author of twelve books of fiction and non-fiction. Her most recent titles include the biographies Joan in India (2008), The Imago: E. L. Grant Watson & Australia (2011), Mrs Mort's Madness (2014) and Mick: A life of Randolph Stow (2016). She has been shortlisted for the Vogel Award, the Kibble Award, the Queensland Premier's Literary Award, and the NSW History Awards. She lives in Sydney.

'As the author of a good book, and, rarer still, a good book about crime, Falkiner deserves both praise and respect.' Stephen Knight, The Age Monthly Review Thoughtful, absorbing. * The Sydney Morning Herald * Lucidly written by a trenchant and conscientious writer, Eugenia: A Man is undoubtedly the fullest and fairest account of the curious and tragic life of a transsexual in Sydney at the turn of the century. -- Mark Try * Campaign * Well researched and clearly written. -- Peter Corris * The Weekend Australian *