Spy Daughter Queer Girl

<p><strong>2023 Judy Grahn Award Finalist for Best Lesbian Nonfiction</strong></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>For Leslie Absher secrecy is just another member of the family. Throughout childhood her father's shadowy government job was ill-defined her mother's mental health stayed off limits--even her queer identity remained hidden from her family and unacknowledged by Leslie herself. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>In SPY DAUGHTER QUEER GIRL Absher pursues the truth: of her family her identity and her father's role in Greece's CIA-backed junta. As a guide Absher brings readers to the shade of plane trees in Greece to queer discos in Boston and to tense diner meals with her aging CIA father. As a memoirist Absher renders a lifetime of hazy shapeshifting truths in high-definition vibrance. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Infused with a journalist's tenacity and a daughter's open heart this book recounts a decades' long process of discovery and the reason why the facts should matter to us all. </span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Leslie Absher is a journalist and personal essay writer. Her work has appeared in the </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1); background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Los Angeles Times</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1); background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Huffington Post</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1); background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Salon</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1); background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Ms.</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1); background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Greek Reporter</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> and </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1); background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>San Francisco Magazine.</em></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)></span><em style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Spy Daughter Queer Girl</em><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)> is succinctly written gorgeously rendered and emotionally illuminating. One could describe it as part memoir part spy thriller but it also has a wider scope: It brings to life a micro-history of being young and gay in America in the '80s.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>   </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)> --Sophia Glock <em>Ms. magazine</em></strong></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>The fierceness of Absher's courageous quest to learn the gut-wrenching truths of her father's obfuscations parallels her search for her own truths in struggling to know herself as a gay woman....This book is a treasure.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>   </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>--Kathryn Watterson author of <em>Women in Prison Not by the Sword </em>and<em> I Hear My People Singing</em></strong></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Leslie tells her story with soul-searing honesty plenty of self-deprecation and humour. In working through her own story confronting her difficult past she's revealed the human damage - most often to innocents - inflicted by the espionage game played out on the global chessboard. </span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>   </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>--Ian Callaghan producer of the Audible Original series <em>My Dad the Spy</em></strong></p>