Overview

What happens when an American diplomat is exposed as a sexual abuser of young girls? In her searing memoir, Kristin Louise Duncombe takes us back to her childhood in West Africa, where her life is a tapestry of lazy family days by the pool and secret abuse at the hands of an esteemed member of the close-knit US Embassy community. When the assailant is outed by one brave girl and more preteens come forward, the scandal is hushed up by the State Department, the parents' fight for justice goes nowhere and the abuser is simply transferred back to Washington. But the consequences for the girls he assaulted will last a lifetime. Duncombe tells her globe-trotting story in dual timelines - her struggle as a traumatized teen to navigate her sexuality against a backdrop of abuse, and her life as an older-but-none-the-wiser adult seeking self-worth in unfulfilling relationships. When she finally finds the courage to leave her complicated marriage, it is by facing the demons that have haunted her since childhood. Object is a coming-of-age story twice told: once when a little girl grows up too fast, and a second time, in middle age, when the woman she has become finally heals. This important book is a fierce indictment of the silencing of girls and women in the United States and abroad.

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