DENIAL : A MEMOIR OF TERROR

Book Details

• Publisher: Mehta Publishing House

• Translator: Maitreyee Joshi

• Language: Marathi (Translated from English)

• Edition: 1st Edition

• Publishing Year: March 2016

• ISBN: 9788184989922

• Pages: 312

• Cover: Paperback

• Category: Autobiography

About The Book

In this deeply impactful autobiography, the author, a terrorism expert, national security adviser, and Harvard lecturer, revisits a traumatic episode from her youth that had lasting consequences on her life. Growing up in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1973, at the age of 15, she and her younger sister were brutally assaulted at gunpoint by an unknown intruder. This harrowing event would shape the course of her life, forcing her to confront its long-lasting emotional toll years later when the police reopened the case in 2006.

The investigation initially linked the assault to a local serial rapist, who served 18 years in prison before taking his own life. As the case unfolded, the author’s painful journey took her back to the traumatic aftermath, where she struggled to cope with her shame and silence. Her response to the trauma was shaped by the stoic, survivalist mindset instilled in her by her German-born Jewish father, who had lived through Nazi persecution in his youth.

The book chronicles the author’s personal battle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition she could only truly recognize after years of interviewing terrorists in her professional capacity. Through her work, she uncovers the profound and damaging effects of trauma, providing a strong, clear-eyed study of how such experiences reverberate through one’s life.

Translated into Marathi by Maitreyee Joshi, this memoir not only reflects the personal journey of overcoming deep psychological wounds but also sheds light on the wider implications of trauma and its lasting effects. The book offers invaluable insights into the human spirit’s resilience and the complex nature of post-traumatic growth.