She's Under Here

“Told with cinematic, heart-thumping detail, She’s Under Here offers haunting meditations on how fear lingers long after we reach safe shores.”

–NPR: Books We Love“Beautifully written, a riveting story but also a reflection on the limits of memory, trauma and identity.”–Lena Dunham“Searingly honest, yet deftly tender…She’s Under Here may be a deeply personal, and painful, history, but within it contains a universal truth: the way we live our lives tells the real story of who we are.” –Chicago Review of Books“She’s Under Here is a haunting meditation on themes of disappearance, betrayal and private violence, and it is utterly unforgettable.” –Bookreporter.com“Tautly strung… . Palmer’s book is not just a thrilling story but also a forensic accounting of a situation whose moral complexities might be easily pushed under the rug – but Palmer examines them thoughtfully.”–Marion Winik, The Washington Post“Throughout the harrowing “She’s Under Here,” Palmer asks herself what makes a mother…Where she lands and how she gets there makes for truly compelling reading.“–Minneapolis Star-Tribune”She’s Under Here is a hurricane, elegant and visceral at once. Love, nightmares, family–I haven’t read anything this powerful in a long time.“–Luis Alberto Urrea, author of Good Night, Irene“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