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Description
Read the book that's getting conversion therapy banned in Canada
Winner of the Independent Book Publisher Award, Finalist for the Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction and the Saints and Sinners Emerging Writer Award.
"Unforgettable... This book is appallingly appropriate in these times." -- FOREWORD REVIEWS
This resonant and acclaimed memoir recounts the six years that the author spent in a bizarre form of conversion therapy that attempted to "cure" him of his homosexuality, and the inspiring story of how he cast out shame and reclaimed his life.
Kept with other patients in a cult-like home in British Columbia, Canada, Peter Gajdics was under the authority of a dominating, rogue psychiatrist who controlled his patients, in part, by creating and exploiting a false sense of family. Juxtaposed against his parents' tormented past-his mother's incarceration and escape from a communist concentration camp in post-World War II Yugoslavia, and his father's upbringing as an orphan in war-torn Hungary, The Inheritance of Shame explores the universal themes of childhood trauma, oppression, and intergenerational pain.
"DEEPLY MOVING." -- THE ADVOCATE
"RAW AND UNFLINCHING" -- KIRKUS REVIEWS
"A HERO'S JOURNEY IN WHICH ANY READER, GAY OR STRAIGHT, CAN FIND INSPIRATION." -- LAMBDA LITERARY FOUNDATION
All over the United States and Canada, districts, cities and states are banning conversion, ex-gay and reparative therapies. A powerful example of "healing through memoir," this book offers the most complete and compelling reason for those bans to date. A groundbreaking memoir, The Inheritance of Shame offers insights into overcoming all kinds of shame, especially that which has trickled down from previous generations, and into the complicated but all-too-worthwhile process of forgiveness.
Winner of the Independent Book Publisher Award, Finalist for the Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction and the Saints and Sinners Emerging Writer Award.
"Unforgettable... This book is appallingly appropriate in these times." -- FOREWORD REVIEWS
This resonant and acclaimed memoir recounts the six years that the author spent in a bizarre form of conversion therapy that attempted to "cure" him of his homosexuality, and the inspiring story of how he cast out shame and reclaimed his life.
Kept with other patients in a cult-like home in British Columbia, Canada, Peter Gajdics was under the authority of a dominating, rogue psychiatrist who controlled his patients, in part, by creating and exploiting a false sense of family. Juxtaposed against his parents' tormented past-his mother's incarceration and escape from a communist concentration camp in post-World War II Yugoslavia, and his father's upbringing as an orphan in war-torn Hungary, The Inheritance of Shame explores the universal themes of childhood trauma, oppression, and intergenerational pain.
"DEEPLY MOVING." -- THE ADVOCATE
"RAW AND UNFLINCHING" -- KIRKUS REVIEWS
"A HERO'S JOURNEY IN WHICH ANY READER, GAY OR STRAIGHT, CAN FIND INSPIRATION." -- LAMBDA LITERARY FOUNDATION
All over the United States and Canada, districts, cities and states are banning conversion, ex-gay and reparative therapies. A powerful example of "healing through memoir," this book offers the most complete and compelling reason for those bans to date. A groundbreaking memoir, The Inheritance of Shame offers insights into overcoming all kinds of shame, especially that which has trickled down from previous generations, and into the complicated but all-too-worthwhile process of forgiveness.
Product Details
| Publisher | Brown Paper Press |
| Publish Date | May 16, 2017 |
| Pages | 352 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Paperback / softback |
| EAN/UPC | 9781941932087 |
| Dimensions | 7.9 X 5.0 X 0.8 inches | 0.8 pounds |
About the Author
Peter Gajdics is a recipient of a writers grant from Canada Council for the Arts, a fellowship from The Summer Literary Seminars, and an alumni of Lambda Literary Foundation's "Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices." When not in Budapest, Hungary, his home away from home, Peter lives in Vancouver, Canada. This is his first book.
Reviews
"Raw and unflinching: a powerful argument against conversion therapy as well as the healing power of memoir." -- KIRKUS REVIEWS, May 2017
"In Peter Gajdics' memoir, we're taken into a real-life horror film of malpractice and corrupt psychotherapy, hoping at every turn of the page that our narrator escapes... A necessary and devastating memoir about the trauma of conversion therapy and the homophobia that persists to this day." -- DANIEL ZOMPARELLI, author of Everything is Awful and You're a Terrible Person
"Peter Gajdics traces his transformation from 'a man whose food seemed poisonous to his hunger' to a writer who makes real what seemed unreal. Through unrelenting prose, his words provide a home for his orphaned father, tortured mother, and most importantly, his own identity that others wanted to drug, demonize, and destroy." -- KATE GRAY, author of Carry the Sky
"Reflective but passionate, Gajdics takes the reader on an exploration beyond the what of his experience as a young, conflicted gay man and deeply into the chasm of his search to discover who he was.... This exploration is a hero's journey in which any reader, gay or straight, can find inspiration." -- LAMBDA LITERARY, April 2017
"Peter Gajdics' multi-faceted memoir offers help for abuse survivors and those who care about them... His healing speaks to the power and fortitude of the human spirit. The Inheritance of Shame is both about damage and healing. This is a work of love." -- MIKE LEW, author of Victims No Longer: The Classic Guide for Men Recovering from Sexual Child Abuse
"Cults come in many forms and unfortunately those who want to be normal sometimes become victims of these cults. The book focuses on the triumph of the human spirit and shows how everyone may be different in some ways but no one is born to be what others think they should be. At the end, be yourself and be happier is the theme of the book." -- BEV SELLARS, Bestselling author of They Called Me Number One
"The Inheritance of Shame provides an in-depth account of the triumph of one man's sanity over a psychotherapy system designed to eradicate personhood. Particularly moving were passages of Gajdics's fondness for the very therapist who abused him, a kind of Stockholm syndrome most survivors of conversion therapy have experienced. A necessary, incredibly nuanced portrait of a survivor, The Inheritance of Shame will change lives." -- GARRARD CONLEY, author of Boy Erased: A Memoir
"Unforgettable... This book is appallingly appropriate in these times." -- FOREWORD REVIEWS
"Peter Gajdics carries us along effortlessly on his incredible struggle with family rejection, loss of self and ultimate recovery from the deep wounds inflicted by anti-gay "therapy." At this time of immense suffering for LGBTQ+ youth around the world, his emergence from shame should give hope for healing to all victims of this destructive practice." -- JASON MARSDEN, Executive Director, Matthew Shepard Foundation
"In Peter Gajdics' memoir, we're taken into a real-life horror film of malpractice and corrupt psychotherapy, hoping at every turn of the page that our narrator escapes... A necessary and devastating memoir about the trauma of conversion therapy and the homophobia that persists to this day." -- DANIEL ZOMPARELLI, author of Everything is Awful and You're a Terrible Person
"Peter Gajdics traces his transformation from 'a man whose food seemed poisonous to his hunger' to a writer who makes real what seemed unreal. Through unrelenting prose, his words provide a home for his orphaned father, tortured mother, and most importantly, his own identity that others wanted to drug, demonize, and destroy." -- KATE GRAY, author of Carry the Sky
"Reflective but passionate, Gajdics takes the reader on an exploration beyond the what of his experience as a young, conflicted gay man and deeply into the chasm of his search to discover who he was.... This exploration is a hero's journey in which any reader, gay or straight, can find inspiration." -- LAMBDA LITERARY, April 2017
"Peter Gajdics' multi-faceted memoir offers help for abuse survivors and those who care about them... His healing speaks to the power and fortitude of the human spirit. The Inheritance of Shame is both about damage and healing. This is a work of love." -- MIKE LEW, author of Victims No Longer: The Classic Guide for Men Recovering from Sexual Child Abuse
"Cults come in many forms and unfortunately those who want to be normal sometimes become victims of these cults. The book focuses on the triumph of the human spirit and shows how everyone may be different in some ways but no one is born to be what others think they should be. At the end, be yourself and be happier is the theme of the book." -- BEV SELLARS, Bestselling author of They Called Me Number One
"The Inheritance of Shame provides an in-depth account of the triumph of one man's sanity over a psychotherapy system designed to eradicate personhood. Particularly moving were passages of Gajdics's fondness for the very therapist who abused him, a kind of Stockholm syndrome most survivors of conversion therapy have experienced. A necessary, incredibly nuanced portrait of a survivor, The Inheritance of Shame will change lives." -- GARRARD CONLEY, author of Boy Erased: A Memoir
"Unforgettable... This book is appallingly appropriate in these times." -- FOREWORD REVIEWS
"Peter Gajdics carries us along effortlessly on his incredible struggle with family rejection, loss of self and ultimate recovery from the deep wounds inflicted by anti-gay "therapy." At this time of immense suffering for LGBTQ+ youth around the world, his emergence from shame should give hope for healing to all victims of this destructive practice." -- JASON MARSDEN, Executive Director, Matthew Shepard Foundation
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