Is Confessions of the Fox Worth Reading?
Ada’s Score
Set in 18th-century London, this genre-bending novel reimagines Jack Sheppard, the legendary thief, as a trans man navigating desire, danger, and identity in the criminal underworld. Framed as a scholarly manuscript discovered by a queer academic, the story layers metafiction with swashbuckling adventure and tenderly rendered romance. Jordy Rosenberg writes with anarchic wit and deep political consciousness, interrogating how history erases trans and working-class lives. A radically inventive debut that refuses easy categorization.
Episode 7“Anarchic, tender, and wildly original — Rosenberg hides a beating heart inside a heist story.”
The Manuscript That Rewrites the Margins
Confessions of the Fox is doing at least three dazzling things at once: it's a swashbuckling historical adventure, a deeply felt meditation on trans identity and survival, and a metafictional game about who gets to tell history and why. Jordy Rosenberg frames the novel as an academic's discovery of a lost manuscript about the real Jack Sheppard — reimagined as a trans man — and the footnotes alone could be their own book. It's formally inventive and genuinely moving, the kind of novel that makes you feel like literature itself is expanding to hold something new.
Ada Brief
AI reading intelligence“Anarchic, tender, and wildly original — Rosenberg hides a beating heart inside a heist story.”
The Manuscript That Rewrites the Margins
Confessions of the Fox is doing at least three dazzling things at once: it's a swashbuckling historical adventure, a deeply felt meditation on trans identity and survival, and a metafictional game about who gets to tell history and why. Jordy Rosenberg frames the novel as an academic's discovery of a lost manuscript about the real Jack Sheppard — reimagined as a trans man — and the footnotes alone could be their own book. It's formally inventive and genuinely moving, the kind of novel that makes you feel like literature itself is expanding to hold something new.
Book Details
- Publisher
- One World
- Published
- January 1, 2018
- Pages
- 341
- Language
- English
Get This Book
Affiliate linksISBN: 9780399592287
Disclosure: ReadAda earns a commission on purchases made through these links, at no extra cost to you.
Ada’s Score
4.2
Ada’s editorial score — not an aggregate of reader reviews.
Common Questions About Confessions of the Fox
- Is Confessions of the Fox worth reading?
- Anarchic, tender, and wildly original — Rosenberg hides a beating heart inside a heist story. Ada rates it 4.2 out of 5.
- How many pages is Confessions of the Fox?
- Confessions of the Fox is 341 pages long — around 6–7 hours at an average reading pace.
