How to Cook Your Daughter: A Memoir

(Paperback)

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From the daughter of the bestselling author of Father Joe: the poignant and ultimately hopeful memoir of a young girls struggle to live a normal childhood in the chaotic seventies, and to overcome sexual abuse by her famous father

Earlier this year, Tony Hendras memoir, Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul, spent thirteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. The book detailed his life as a comedian who launched the careers of John Belushi and Chevy Chase and helped create such cult classics as This Is Spinal Tap, while he struggled with inner demons including alcohol and drug abuse. But there was a glaring omission in his supposed tell-all confessional: his sexual abuse of his daughter, Jessica Hendra, when she was a young girl.

After more than thirty years of silence, Hendra has decided to reveal the truth. In this poignant memoir, she reveals the full story behind the New York Times article that rocked the world and detailed her fathers crimes. But Jessicas story is no footnote to her fathers story. No One Was Listening is also the inspiring story of her own journey, and how she was finally able to find healing within, after years of struggling with anorexia, bulimia, and low self-esteem. Set against the backdrop of the chaotic seventies, Hendras memoir follows Jessica and her sister Kathy as they strove to make a normal life for themselves amidst the madness, sex, and drug abuse that her parents and their friendsmany of the household names in the world of show businessparticipated in. No One Was Listening reveals the hope and heartache of a young girl who was faced with a loss of innocence at an early age, who faced a slow and painful recovery, and who finally found contentment and peace within.

Reviews

"Riveting . . . [Hendra's] head-on confrontation with her demons is the ultimate story of bravery." -- USA Today

"Captivating, witty, and not self-pitying." -- Jane

"Sharply written and absorbing." -- Library Journal

"Excellent . . . gripping . . . Uncommonly fair and evenhanded. . . . A polished and touching piece of work." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Literature of moral power. . . . Father Joe may not have saved [Tony Hendra], but in writing her book, his daughter may have saved herself." -- New York Times

"Lucid and trustworthy . . . exemplifies the reasons for and the costs and rewards of a life intent on healing." -- Christian Century

Author Bio

Jessica Hendra is an author, speaker and advocate for survivors of sexual abuse. A native New Yorker Jessica now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two daughters.