Little Fish is a novel which follows Wendy, a 30 year old trans woman in Winnipeg, after coming to the realisation that her grandfather may have also been trans. Really, that only forms a very small part of the narrative; the heart of the novel is Wendy's perpetual struggle to live the life she wants to live - independent, not tied to a small town, a life she views as worthwhile - when circumstances outside of her control conspire to keep her in the rigid box of existence that society allows trans women. Her attempts to make her own family and micro-society as a space without these limitations is explored with heartbreak and humour.

As the book unravels, so too does Wendy's life, and by the time the novel ends, it's almost impossible to envisage a tidy conclusion. Plett tells the story in a hyper-realistic and immediate narrative voice - the dialogue is just extraordinary - and it means that Wendy never feels like a character; she's more like a real person you've only ever talked to online.
It's hard to say exactly which themes this book explores so effectively without spoiling the plot, but Plett makes Wendy both a metonym for the dangers of being openly trans as well as an entirely authentic, well-rounded protagonist. An absolute must read for anyone with an interest in fiction with a trans perspective.