This is a brilliant study of how society views rape.”

New York Times 
New & Noteworthy Audiobooks
Lit Hubs Most Anticipated Books of 2020
Named one of the 100 MUST Reads of 2020 by TIME Magazine
Book Page Best Books 2020
A Boston Globe Best Books, 2020
Starred Review Shelf Awareness

 
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"At the risk of overlooking many others, I would add Michelle Bowdler and Salamishah Tillet to the list of those who have changed the way we think and talk about gender violence."

Anita Hill, Signs Journal

"This standout memoir marks a crucial moment in the discussion of what constitutes a violent crime."

Publishers Weekly, Best Books of 2020

"a unique intervention in the memoir and social justice genres. Bowdler is an uncommonly gifted writer. She is thoughtful even when describing horrible wrongs; lucid and captivating even when describing the sort of psychic pain that typically eludes words."

—Moira Donegan, The Guardian


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She Said meets Know My Name in Michelle Bowdler's provocative debut, telling the story of her rape and recovery while interrogating why one of society's most serious crimes goes largely uninvestigated.

Award-winning writer and public health executive Michelle Bowdler's memoir indicts how sexual violence has been addressed for decades in our society, asking whether rape is a crime given that it is the least reported major felony, least successfully prosecuted, and fewer than 3% of rapists ever spend a day in jail. Cases are closed before they are investigated and DNA evidence sits for years untested and disregarded Rape in this country is not treated as a crime of brutal violence but as a parlor game of he said / she said. It might be laughable if it didn’t work so much of the time. Given all this, it seems fair to ask whether rape is actually a crime.

In 1984, the Boston Sexual Assault Unit was formed as a result of a series of break-ins and rapes that terrorized the city, of which Michelle’s own horrific rape was the last. Twenty years later, after a career of working with victims like herself, Michelle decides to find out what happened to her case and why she never heard from the police again after one brief interview. An expert blend of memoir and cultural investigation, Michelle's story is a rallying cry to reclaim our power and right our world.


I hope this story can help move us a little closer to that distant claiming of power—power that includes full legitimacy, respect, and equal treatment under the law, power that I believe is within our grasp.