The Escape Artist

A luminous family memoir from the author of the critically acclaimed Boston Globe bestseller, After Long Silence, lauded as "mesmerizing" (The Washington Post Book World), "extraordinary" (The Philadelphia Inquirer) and "a triumphant work of art" (Publishers Weekly, starred review).In the tradition of Alison Bechdel's Fun Home or George Hodgman's Bettyville, Fremont writes with wit and candor about growing up in a household held together by a powerful glue: secrets. Her parents, profoundly affected by their memories of the Holocaust, pass on to both Helen and her older sister a penchant for keeping their lives neatly, even obsessively compartmentalized, and a zealous determination to protect themselves from what they see as danger from the outside world. She delves deeply into the family dynamic that produced such a startling devotion to secret keeping, beginning with the painful and unexpected...