Inside Henry Cato, by Katharine English

“Katharine English’s Inside Henry Cato is an intimate portrait of a man and all his varied layers. Dig into the pages of this brilliant debut, and you won’t only discover the truth about Henry; you might just find yourself. A delightful read.” — Eli Cranor, bestselling, award-winning author of Ozark Dogs and Broiler

All Henry Cato wants is to belong. But he was born to a woman who saw the world as a series of stains to be scrubbed clean — and Henry as the deepest stain of all. In a root cellar deep below the Kansas topsoil, he does penance for being different, nurturing a secret obsession with shoes he was never meant to wear.

In 1967, with nothing but a sharp eye for detail, a talent for thievery, and a desperate need for belonging, Henry flees to San Francisco. There, Del, a charismatic Texas oil heir, exploits Henry’s taboo fascination and catapults him to cult stardom. For the first time, Henry feels seen — but the persona that promises liberation becomes a gilded cage.

When he escapes to the gritty, industrial playground of New York City’s Meatpacking District, Henry must navigate predators, fame, and reinvention — and reconcile the boy who still feels like a forgery with the person he is becoming. Or risk losing himself entirely.

Reminiscent of Douglas Stuart, Frank McCourt, and Hanya Yanagihara, Inside Henry Cato is a bold, compassionate exploration of identity, sexuality, and the tactile language of shoes — the story of a survivor learning to stand in the light of an ambiguous world.