In the Darkroom

(Paperback)

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A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR

WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE 2017

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author of Backlash', an astonishing confrontation with the enigma of her father and the larger riddle of identity.

In 2004 feminist writer Susan Faludi set out to investigate someone she scarcely knew: her estranged father. Steven Faludi had lived many roles: suburban dad, Alpine mountaineer, swashbuckling adventurer in the Amazon, Jewish fugitive in Holocaust Budapest. Living in Hungary after sex reassignment surgery and identifying as a complete woman now,' how was this new parent connected to the silent and ultimately violent father who had built his career on the alteration of images

Faludi's struggle to come to grips with her father's metamorphosis takes her across borders historical, political, religious, sexual and brings her face to face with the question of the age: is identity something you "choose" or is it the very thing you cannot escape

Reviews

The book does much to document and try and make sense of the suddenly urgent issue of gender fluidity and discrimination, its confusions and challenges remarkable, moving and courageous Guardian

An indelible picture of Stefanie editing her life until she found an identity she could live with Sunday Times

AN OUT-AND-OUT MASTERPIECE Observer

An extraordinary act of love Financial Times

Candid and courageous, its dizzyingly well written, Books of the Year, Sunday Times

An absolute stunner of a memoir probing, steel-nerved, moving in ways youd never expect New York Times

Faludi's remarkable, moving and courageous book is extremely fair-minded Guardian

In the Darkroom reads like a mystery thriller yet packs the emotional punch of a carefully crafted memoir. Susan Faludis investigation into her fathers life reveals, with humour and poignancy, the central paradox of being someones child. However close, our parents will always be, perhaps by nature of the role, fundamentally enigmatic to us. Amanda Foreman

Faludi weaves together these strands of her father's identity Jewishness, nationality, gender with energy, wit and nuance Faludi has paid her late father a fine tribute by bringing her to life in such a compelling, truthful story New Statesman

[A] mighty new book a searching investigation of identity barely disguised as a sometimes funny and sometimes very painful family saga reticent, elegant and extremely clever an out-and-out masterpiece Observer

A fascinating chronicle of a decade trying to understand a parent who had always been inscrutable Economist

Compelling Sunday Times

Well-written touching compelling The Times

An astonishing, unique book that should be essential reading for anyone wanting to explore transsexualitys place in contemporary culture Irish Independent

Author Bio

Susan Faludi is a Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist and the
author of The Terror Dream, Stiffed, and Backlash, which
won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.
A former reporter for The Wall Street Journal, she has written
for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Harpers, and The Baffler, among other publications.