Boston Book Festival

Susan Faludi had been, for twenty-five years, out of touch with her photographer father, a Hungarian Jew who had returned to Hungary, when she received a message from him notifying her of his sex reassignment surgery. The news set in motion both a reconciliation and an investigation. Faludi set out to understand her complicated father, whose gender identity issues were matched by his ambivalence about his identity as a Jew and his baffling identification with the very same Hungarians who had wanted him dead. Faludi’s masterful memoir, In the Darkroom, is a riveting examination not only of her father, but also of the wider cultural, historical, and identity issues at play in the formation of his character. The always inquiring Christopher Lydon, host of WBUR’s Open Source, will moderate the session. Sponsored by WBUR.