Rachel Louise Snyder

Harvard Book Store welcomes award-winning journalist RACHEL LOUISE SNYDER for a discussion of her latest book, No Visible Bruises: What We Don't Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us. She will be joined in conversation by SUZANNE DUBUS, the CEO of the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center, and by award-winning writer ANDRE DUBUS III.

About No Visible Bruises

We call it domestic violence. We call it private violence. Sometimes we call it intimate terrorism. But whatever we call it, we generally do not believe it has anything at all to do with us, despite the World Health Organization deeming it a “global epidemic.” In America, domestic violence accounts for 15 percent of all violent crime, and yet it remains locked in silence, even as its tendrils reach unseen into so many of our most pressing national issues, from our economy to our education system, from mass shootings to mass incarceration to #MeToo. We still have not taken the true measure of this problem.

In No Visible Bruises, journalist Rachel Louise Snyder gives context for what we don't know we're seeing. She frames this urgent and immersive account of the scale of domestic violence in our country around key stories that explode the common myths—that if things were bad enough, victims would just leave; that a violent person cannot become nonviolent; that shelter is an adequate response; and most insidiously that violence inside the home is a private matter, sealed from the public sphere and disconnected from other forms of violence. Through the stories of victims, perpetrators, law enforcement, and reform movements from across the country, Snyder explores the real roots of private violence, its far-reaching consequences for society, and what it will take to truly address it.

Praise

“A powerful exploration of the sinister, insidious nature of domestic violence in America. . . . Bracing and gut-wrenching, with slivers of hope throughout, this is exemplary, moving reportage on an important subject that often remains in the dark due to shame and/or fear.” ―Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"No Visible Bruises is a seminal and breathtaking account of why home is the most dangerous place to be a woman. Through brilliant insights and myth-busting research, compelling storytelling, and a passionate focus on truth-telling, Rachel Louise Snyder places domestic violence exactly where it should be, smack in the center of everything. A tour de force." ―Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues

“Gut-wrenching, required reading.” ―Esquire

Update

Andre Dubus III and Suzanne Dubus, originally scheduled to join this event in conversation, are no longer able to attend.