Half the House is turning 20!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Classic memoir, Half the House, published in a 20th Anniversary Edition, with a new introduction by Louise DeSalvo.

This October marks the 20th anniversary of the original publication of Richard Hoffman’s groundbreaking memoir, Half the House, the first literary memoir to explore the experience and consequences of boyhood sexual assault. Years before the scandal in the Catholic Church, and long before the Penn State scandal, Hoffman had written movingly of the lives of blue-collar boys for whom coaches are a kind of priesthood. The publication of Half the House resulted in the arrest of a serial child predator with more than 400 victims over a 40 year period, a man who died in prison under mysterious circumstances.

Continuously in print since 1995, Half the House has been an important focal point in the discourse about child sexual abuse, especially the sexual abuse of boys. It has helped to create an awareness, and then become a catalyst in a worldwide movement of survivors of boyhood sexual violence. For its enactment of justice, reconciliation, and healing, it remains a beacon to survivors around the world.

“As stark and graceful as a bare winter tree.” — Los Angeles Times

“Hoffman makes very clear the complex encounter of his old life and his new one. There are no easy wrap-ups, no comforting bromides. But in the generational panorama we suddenly discern that a hard, brave victory has been achieved. The family saga has come full circle. Hoffman, sober, a father, has not only lived to tell the tale. He has worked to understand it and fashion it into art.” — Sven Birkerts in The Art of Time in Memoir: Then, Again

“Spare, poignant….” — Time

“Half the House offers heartening evidence, to borrow William Faulkner’s phrase, of the human capacity to endure and prevail.” — Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World

 “Ultimately a story of love, reconciliation, and triumph over adversity.” — Library Journal

Please direct inquiries to Nayt Rundquist, Managing Editor, New Rivers Press, 1104 7th Avenue S., Moorhead, MN 56563. 218.477.5870. rundquisna@mnstate.edu            <http://www.newriverspress.com>