Why would a good person commit a terrible act?

Fifteen years ago, Jeannie’s relationship with a close friend ended in rape. With the rise of the #MeToo movement, recurring nightmares of the event that plagued her as a girl have returned. To process her conflicted feelings of betrayal and take back control, she resolves to face her trauma head-on by interviewing her rapist.

Through their transcribed conversations and discussions with her closest friends, Jeannie’s compelling memoir explores how the incident impacted both of their lives, while examining the culture and language surrounding sexual assault and rape. Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl is a necessary contribution to the wider conversation around sexual violence from a brave, new voice.

About the Author

Jeannie Vanasco is the highly acclaimed author of My Father’s Glass Eye. Her writing has appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, The New York Times, and the New Yorker. She lives in Baltimore where she works as an Assistant Professor of English at Towson University.

Reviews

‘Cuts through the silence of deep betrayal, gives contour to the aching space between forgiveness and absolution, and offers a living testament to the endless wreckage of sexual assault’ Amy Jo Burns, author of Cinderland

‘Explodes rape culture at the level of language, shows us how we are trapped and how we might make ourselves free. This is a brilliant book, an astonishingly fierce inquiry into the places language won’t go’ Emily Geminder, author of Dead Girls

‘Vanasco has written exactly the book we need right now. I wish everyone would read it’ Melissa Febos, author of Abandon Me

‘Brave and compelling… Vanasco muddles through the silt of her thoughts to create a language for something we don’t talk about’ Paris Review, staff pick

‘Brave and urgent… a searching, brilliant book and Vanasco is a formidable talent. We are lucky to have her’ Daniel Gumbiner, author of The Boatbuilder

‘Wickedly clever and powerful… a necessary book’ Krystal A. Sital

Book InformationISBN 9780715653753Author Jeannie VanascoFormat PaperbackPage Count 304Imprint DuckworthPublisher Duckworth Books