Denial: A Memoir - Softcover

Stern, Jessica

Softcover

ISBN 10: 006162666X ISBN 13: 9780061626661

Publisher: Ecco, 2011

Synopsis

Hailed by critics and readers alike, Jessica Stern's riveting memoir examines the horrors of trauma and denial as she investigates her own unsolved adolescent sexual assault at the hands of a serial rapist.

Alone in an unlocked house, in a safe suburban Massachusetts town, two good, obedient girls, Jessica Stern, fifteen, and her sister, fourteen, were raped on the night of October 1, 1973.

The rapist was never caught. For over thirty years, Stern denied the pain and the trauma of the assault. Following the example of her family, Stern—who lost her mother at the age of three, and whose father was a Holocaust survivor—focused on her work instead of her terror. She became a world-class expert on terrorism and post-traumatic stress disorder who interviewed extremists around the globe. But while her career took off, her success hinged on her symptoms. After her ordeal, she no longer felt fear in normally frightening situations.

Stern believed she'd disassociated from the trauma altogether, until a dedicated police lieutenant reopened the case. With the help of the lieutenant, Stern began her own investigation to uncover the truth about the town of Concord, her own family, and her own mind. The result is Denial, a candid, courageous, and ultimately hopeful look at a trauma and its aftermath.

About this title

About the Author:

Jessica Stern is a research professor at Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Studies and a Fellow at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard’s School of Public Health. She served on the Clinton administration’s National Security Council Staff. She is the author of Denial: A Memoir of Terror; Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill (a New York Times Notable Book of the Year); and The Ultimate Terrorists. 

Review:

“[A] stunningly brave book.” (Elle)

“This month’s must-read nonfiction: terrorism expert Jessica Stern’s DENIAL: A Memoir of Terror which opens the decades-old file of a crime committed against Stern as a teen, launching her on a gutsy investigation into the ways in which trauma is perpetuated.” (Vogue)

“DENIAL [is] a profound human document... it is hot to the touch in ways that are both memorable and disturbing.” (New York Times)

“[Stern’s] commitment to introspection makes for a book that is memorably searing...” (New York Times Book Review)

“[Denial is a] powerfully constructed memoir ... [an] incandescently honest book...” (Washington Post)

“[Stern’s rapist] whose chaotic life and whose own probable victimization Stern reconstructs, caused her lifelong anguish. She doesn’t simply tell us so but shows us in shattered, artfully repetitive narration.” (Boston Globe)

“...An intense and honest examination...DENIAL is a touching portrait of how the after affects of trauma can influence the personal and professional life of its victim.” (Philadelphia Tribune)

“An extraordinary memoir conveys Stern’s process of denial, dissociation, and healing in her dawning realization of intolerable truths.” (Providence Journal)

“a compelling investigation into her own life, the life of the serial rapist who committed at least 44 similar crimes and the way trauma affects everyone it touches, sometimes in surprisingly positive ways.” (Time magazine)

“In this skillfully wrought, powerful study, a terrorism expert, national security adviser, and lecturer at Harvard, returns to a definitive episode of terror in her own early life and traces its grim, damaging ramifications... Stern’s work is a strong, clear-eyed, elucidating study of the profound reverberations of trauma.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review))

About this edition

• Publisher: Ecco
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 006162666X
• ISBN 13: 9780061626661
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336