She's Under Here - by Karen Palmer (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"Heart-pounding, illuminating, and ominously timeless" (Gina Frangello), this honest and poignant memoir reflects on a woman's escape from a violent marriage and what it cost to protect her and her family's safety.

"Once upon a time, I disappeared." So begins Karen Palmer's harrowing and redemptive memoir, She's Under Here.

In 1989, shortly after her second marriage, Palmer and her new husband quit their jobs without notice. They pulled her two young daughters out of school and buckled them into the rear seat of a used car purchased with cash. The trunk was packed with clothing and toys, pillows and blankets, four place settings, one pot, one pan, and a sack that contained every penny they had. Living with the fear of Palmer's dangerous ex-husband had become untenable: This was DIY witness protection.

In this searingly honest and heartwrenching account, Palmer examines why she ended up trapped, how she escaped, and the ongoing perils of life constructed around a false identity. She ruthlessly explores the lines between desire and fear, victim and perpetrator, captivity and freedom, and exposes myriad aspects of what it means to make difficult choices as a woman, when none of the options are good. She's Under Here is a haunting meditation on themes of disappearance, betrayal, and private violence, and it is utterly unforgettable.

Review Quotes

"Karen Palmer's memoir reads with the breathless tension of a snapped wire. Her ingenuity, her resilience, and her determination may well have saved her life and her children's lives. From her real life nightmare comes this dream of a book."--Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruises and Women We Buried, Women We Burned

"Palmer, who flees a violent ex with her children, reinventing herself out of constant fear and necessity, masterfully illustrates that no woman's life is ever only One Thing... Heart-pounding, illuminating, and ominously timeless."--Gina Frangello, author of Blow Your House Down

"To escape a violent man, Karen Palmer had to disappear-- a leap into unimaginable uncertainty that she landed, incredibly, over and over again. And that's the through line of this book, which shocked me by never turning where I expected and never resting on old narratives of trauma and victimhood. Palmer is a precise and wise storyteller. She takes us with her across the danger. This feels less like a redemption tale and more like a tandem skydive, just as terrifying and just as exhilarating. I can't believe she pulled it off, but oh, the joy she wrought from this wild life."--Lacy Crawford, author of Notes on a Silencing

"I read this book in one sitting, hypnotized by Karen Palmer's urgent, fascinating life story and dazzling style. She's Under Here is a genuine tour-de-force, blistering with intelligence and dark wit, as Palmer ruthlessly interrogates the ethics of her past and steers us through the depths. This is an important work of literary art."--Erika Krouse, author of Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation

About the Author

Karen Palmer is a Pushcart Prize winner and has received grants from the NEA and Colorado Council on the Arts. She's Under Here grew out of her award-winning essay "The Reader Is the Protagonist," first published in Virginia Quarterly Review and selected by Leslie Jamison for inclusion in Best American Essays 2017. More recently her short story "Birds of Paradise" won the 2022 Emily Clark Balch Prize for Fiction. Her writing has appeared in The Rumpus, The Kenyon Review, Arts & Letters, and Kalliope, among others. She lives in Los Angeles.