Advance Praise for Women We Buried, Women We Burned

 

“How do you write a book about overcoming extreme hardship, about the singular people who convince you to take a chance on yourself, about finding the big world after a childhood that prepared you for a tiny one, about discovering that you love the people who failed to love you - and manage not to strike a single trite note? How do you remember every detail and make the reader feel like they saw, heard, and felt each moment? I have no idea, actually, but Rachel Louise Snyder has done it.” –Masha Gessen, National Book Award winning author of The Future Is History, and Surviving Autocracy

 

“A bold and searing memoir about family and violence, illness and independence, pain and fear and beauty. With wry humor and enormous humanity, Rachel Louise Snyder shows us how to summon ‘the courage to imagine’ in a cruel and dangerous world. A beautiful book.” —Patrick Radden Keefe, New York Times bestselling author of Rogues, Empire of Pain, and Say Nothing 

“With the same virtuosity and eye for detail she brought to No Visible Bruises, Rachel Louise Snyder uses her own story to illuminate the many divides that plague America, from class and culture wars to toxic religiosity and frayed family ties. Women We Buried, Women We Burned is a gorgeous memoir that parses the patriarchy with an endearing frankness as fierce as it is, astonishingly, forgiving.” —Beth Macy, New York Times bestselling author of Raising Lazarus and Dopesick 

 

“Bravery and honesty are the cornerstone of the memoir, but Snyder adds to this—generosity.  This is a compassionate telling of a sometimes brutal story. Women We Buried, Women We Burned reminds me of opera, with its beautiful sadness and artistic triumph.  The hope contained on these pages is hard won, and all the more precious due to the struggles from which it emerges.” —Tayari Jones, New York Times bestselling author of An American Marriage 

 

“With a journalist’s keen eye and a novelist’s elegant prose, Rachel Louise Snyder delivers an unsentimental and bone-deep observational memoir of death and family, class and history, East and West, and politics and travel; at the center of each story is a reaffirmation of human survival as an art of triumph." —Suki Kim, New York Times bestselling author of Without You, There Is No Us 

 

“A harrowing story of survival that also brims with warmth, wit and insight, this memoir has the propulsive force of a novel, driven by a spirit of compassion and curiosity that will not be broken.” —Jessica Bruder, New York Times bestselling author of Nomadland 

 

“With wonderfully evocative prose, Rachel Louise Snyder captures here the stark horror of a child losing her mother and half her roots as she’s then swept into her evangelical father’s second family and has to either flee or be erased. As nakedly honest as it is fair, what is so remarkable about Women We Buried, Women We Burned is that Ms. Snyder does flee, and her lone voyage to her very self is the voyage of so many girls and women around the world who have been uprooted and cast aside and must find their own way back. This is an important and profoundly moving memoir, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.” – Andre Dubus III, New York Times bestselling author of Townie, and Such Kindness

 

”A propulsive, clear-eyed, and stunning memoir about transformation, self-discovery, and the journey we go on when we decide that yes, we want to do more than simply survive; we want to thrive. Women We Buried, Women We Burned is a revelation.” —Chelsea Bieker, author of Heartbroke and Godshot 

 
“A gorgeous and radiantly honest book, brilliant in its ability to capture the way grief reverberates across a lifetime. Rather than force trauma into a false closure, Snyder transforms it into a radical openness and ability to connect.” —Danielle Evans, author of The Office of Historical Corrections 

 

“As stunning as it is powerful, Women We Buried, Women We Burned is a tour-de-force memoir of family, faith, love, loss, resilience, and, ultimately, redemption. With deftness and grace, Snyder navigates the complicated terrain of childhood trauma and presents a model for how to reconcile with the ghosts of your past.” —Monica West, author of Revival Season

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“A profoundly moving and layered memoir. Snyder’s story connects on so many levels because she writes honestly about traumas, forgiveness, and the hard work it takes to build a life. A truly stunning book that will broaden hearts and minds, and also educate and inspire.” —Loung Ung, author of First They Killed My Father 

 

Praise for No Visible Bruises:

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A NEW YORK TIMES  TOP 10 BOOKS OF THE YEAR

 

NONFICTION FINALIST FOR NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2019 BY: Esquire, Amazon, Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, BookPage, BookRiot, Economist, New York Times Staff Critics

 

“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 and THE APOLOGY

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"This is terrifying, courageous reportage from our internal war zone, a fair and balanced telling of an unfair and unbalanced crisis in American family life.  Snyder writes with stark lucidity and great compassion, and tells stories of utmost urgency with considerable narrative skill." ―Andrew Solomon, author of THE NOONDAY DEMON and FAR FROM THE TREE 

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“No Visible Bruises snapped open my eyes to the direct link between patriarchal entitlement and violence against women, between the way men are raised to the way women are treated. From her dismantling of the term ‘domestic violence,’ which not only couches a pervasive public menace in homey, private terms, but echoes a sick culture in denial, to her connecting the dots between acts of terror and acts of domestic terror, Snyder's is an indispensable, important book.” —Carina Chocano, author of YOU PLAY THE GIRL

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“No Visible Bruises is a keening for the battered and a shout of outrage for the lost, a case for the higher awareness that could make us better humans.” ―Ted Conover, author of NEWJACK, and director of NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute

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"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..." --Kirkus (STARRED Review)

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"In its scope and seriousness — its palpable desire to spur change — this book invites reflection not only about violence but about writing itself. What kinds of reportage really move policy? What kinds of narrative — what sorts of tone, structure, examples — can stoke a reader’s outrage and then translate that outrage into action, keeping it from curdling into cynicism or despair... This is the interesting paradox of this particular genre. Books that want to raise an alarm don’t don’t always aspire to literature, but to be effective — to persuade — they must be literary; they must be obsessed with matters of rhythm, form and language... [Snyder] glides from history to the present day, from scene to analysis, with a relaxed virtuosity that filled me with admiration. This is a writer using every tool at her disposal to make this story come alive, to make it matter." -Parul Sehgal, The New York Times Book Review

 

“Snyder's singular achievement is that she illuminates the dark corners of this specter as a way to understand it and thus eliminate it.” ―J. Anthony Lukas Prize, Judges' Citation for NO VISIBLE BRUISES

 

Praise for What We’ve Lost Is Nothing:

 

“Snyder's debut is smooth and engaging, and reads like the work of a veteran novelist.” ―Publishers Weekly

 

“A muscular and fearless debut novel that boldly tackles the heady themes of prejudice, self-preservation, poverty and privilege.” ―Booklist

 

“Snyder writes with the rigorous scrutiny of an investigative journalist and the deep and roving empathy of a natural-born novelist; the result is a bold and mesmerizing exploration of daily truths we don't talk about nearly enough . . . A stellar debut by an important and necessary new voice among us.” ―Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog and Townie

 

“A powerful, page-turning debut that dares to delve below the surface of our glossy American lives. You may never look at your neighbors--or yourself--the same way again.” ―David Goodwillie, author of American Subversive

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A NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BOOKS OF THE YEAR

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2019 BY: Esquire, Amazon, Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, BookPage, BookRiot, Economist, New York Times Staff Critics