Denial: A Memoir of Terror

One of the world’s foremost experts on terrorism and post-traumatic stress disorder, Jessica Stern has subtitled her book Denial, “A Memoir of Terror.” A brave and astonishingly frank examination of her own unsolved rape at the age of fifteen, Denial investigates how the rape and its aftermath came to shape Stern’s future and her work. The author of the New York Times Notable Book Terror in the Name of God, Jessica Stern brilliantly explores the nature of evil in an extraordinary volume that Louise Richardson, author of What Terrorists Want, calls, “Memorable, powerful and deeply courageous…a riveting read.”

What happens when an expert on evil is forced to investigate the crime that defined her own life?

• A Survivor’s Story: Jessica Stern turns her analytical lens inward, recounting the unsolved rape that shaped her and her groundbreaking work on the nature of violence.
• A Decades-Old Cold Case: When police reopen the investigation thirty years later, Stern must confront not just forgotten details, but the wall of community denial that allowed a predator to remain free.
• Trauma and Recovery: An unflinching look at post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from both a personal and clinical perspective, exploring how the mind processes unspeakable events.
• The Roots of Violence: As she investigates her rapist’s own history, Stern applies the same rigorous inquiry she uses on terrorists to ask a haunting question: What creates a monster?