The Apology

Description

From Eve Ensler, author of one of the most influential works of the twentieth century--The Vagina Monologues--and one of Newsweek's "150 Women Who Changed the World," comes a powerful, life-changing examination of abuse and atonement. Like millions of women, Eve Ensler has been waiting much of her lifetime for an apology. Sexually and physically abused from the age of 5 by her father, Eve has struggled and suffered her whole life from this betrayal, longing for an honest reckoning from a man who is long dead. After years of work as an artist and anti-violence activist, she decided she was no longer waiting; an apology could be imagined, by her, for her, to her. This book, The Apology, written by Eve from her father's point of view in the words she longed to hear attempts to transform the abuse she suffered, with unflinching truthfulness, compassion, and an expansive vision for the future. Through The Apology Eve has set out to provide a new way for herself and a possible road for others, so that survivors of abuse may finally imagine how to be free. In it, she grapples with questions she has sought answers to since she began to understand the impact of her father's abuse on her life: How do we offer a doorway rather than only a locked cell? How do move from humiliation to revelation, from curtailing behavior to changing it, from condemning perpetrators to calling them to reckoning? The Apology is a remarkably original book that explores the deepest and most intimate questions that can be asked at this moment: Why do men carry out abuse, often against the people they know and love the most? How can we--together--stop it? What does it mean to apologize for these acts? What will it take for the men who have committed abuse to make a deep reckoning and actually apologize? As Tony Porter from A Call to Men says, "We've called men out, now how do we call them in?" The Apology is an acutely transformational book--about how, from the wounds of sexual abuse, we can begin to re-emerge and heal. It is a revolutionary book asking everything of each of us: courage, truthfulness, and forgiveness.

Eve Ensler is a Tony Award-winning playwright, author, performer, and activist. She wrote the international bestselling phenomenon The Vagina Monologues, which won an Obie, has been published in 48 languages, and has been performed in more than 140 countries. She is the author of many plays and books, including the NYT bestseller I Am an Emotional Creature. She recently adapted her highly praised memoir In the Body of the World into a play, which ran to critical acclaim at the American Repertory Theater and Manhattan Theatre Club. Her play The Vagina Monologues gave birth to V-DAY, a global activist movement to end gender-based violence. Through benefit productions of her artistic works, the V-DAY movement has raised over $100 million and funded over 13,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses throughout the world. She is also the founder of ONE BILLION RISING, the largest global mass action campaign to combat violence against women and girls. She was named one of Newsweek's "150 Women Who Changed the World" and one of the Guardian's "100 Most Influential Women." She lives in Kingston, NY.

Probably the most important piece of political theater of the last decade. * New York Times on THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES * No recent hour of theater has had a greater impact worldwide. * The New York Times on THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES * [An] extraordinary new memoir . . . a necessary book to read for its fierce, passionate commitment to making the world a safe place for women. * The Boston Globe on IN THE BODY OF THE WORLD * A masterpiece. Ensler has accomplished the impossible: weaving together huge, bold, world-changing ideas with beautiful writing, amazing metaphors, and original structure. Truly one of the most courageous and original works of our time. * Naomi Klein on IN THE BODY OF THE WORLD *