4.31 avg rating — 13 ratings

"I added this book to the Best Books of the 20th Century list at Goodreads.com because this book makes a reader not only learn in an sterile academic way, but it makes a reader (re)experience what the author is talking about, namely, the dissociation from traumatic truths, and it makes a reader observe in oneself a push towards denial and even siding with the perpetrators, despite all the (intellectual knowledge of) evidence or better put because the traumatic nature of the evidence.

It is a book that is not written from the victim's point of view, nor from the therapist's, but from the journalist's point of view. It is a book that has a potential of transforming a reader, silent bystander, into an articulate, compassionate, and committed witness.

It was awarded Outstanding Academic Book award by American Library Association's Choice magazine in 1999.

See more reviews of the book at the author's website http://www.rebeccacoffey.com/uthepage..."