Call Me Nathan, a new LGBTQ+ graphic novel written by Catherine Castro with art by Quentin Zuttion, will be hitting the bookshelves on March 2022.

Set in the universally-troubling time of puberty, Nathan finds himself at a crossroads when his body begins to change and doesn’t feel like it belongs to him. His peers and family don’t understand that he has been born into the wrong body, as Nathan struggles to come to terms with his own gender identity and dysphoria. As he begins the difficult process of claiming his true self, he learns to leave behind everything that was holding him back, including a complicated psychological history and the challenges of his self-harming.

“Becoming oneself is the work of a lifetime, no matter our gender, sexuality, or refusal to be limited by such categorisations,” reads the graphic novel’s press release. “For Nathan, his courageous first steps towards discovering his true self happen through transition.”

This artistically-told tale is based on a true story and explores “the tenacity and bravery that such a journey entails while society continues to wrestle with the meaning of identity.”

Writer Catherine Castro is the author of several books and a reporter for Marie Claire who has explored gender issues around the world. Graphic novel writer and illustrator Quentin Zuttion specialises in work that explores bodies, modern love stories and quests of self-discovery.

Call Me Nathan publisher, SelfMadeHero, is known for other LGBTQ+ works such as Knock Out! and When I Came Out, the former being a biography of bisexual boxer Emile Griffith by Reinhard Kleist and the latter being a humorous account of coming out later in life by Anne Mette Kærulf Lorentzen.

SelfMadeHero specifically seeks to bring readers graphic novels and visual narratives that provoke, entertain, inspire and inform, and this new graphic novel is no exception.

“Call Me Nathan issues a moving call for understanding, a powerful denunciation of prejudice, and a celebration of everything it means to love.”