MEMOIR
Named one of “14 New Books to Read in September.” —Vanity Fair
“In this frank and often searing narrative, Nikolidakis examines what she describes as monstrous abuses perpetrated by her father, who, after leaving her family, murdered his new girlfriend and her daughter before committing suicide…With compelling clarity and eloquence, she anatomizes his ability to manipulate…A brave and inspiring account of a movement through pain to a complex reckoning and self-recovery.” —Kirkus Reviews
“This memoir holds nothing back. It is brutally honest, heart-wrenching, evocative, and soul-searching. While Nikolidakis is honest about the darkness she’s endured, she also opens up the metaphorical window and gives the readers light…A gripping, brutally honest memoir that deals with some heavy themes but will leave readers feeling hopeful and reflective by the end. Readers who enjoy examining the human spirit will be drawn to this book.” –Library Journal (starred review)
Cover of memoir No One Crosses The Wolf: torn wallpaper covered in red anemones, black background, the seam peeling at its center.
Released September 1 2022
Available for order HERE.
“Prepare yourself: reading Lisa Nikolidakis is a revelation, the kind that makes you gasp and call your best friend and say, ‘Listen to this sentence, this paragraph, this chapter. Listen to how she has made sense of the parts of us we ran from.”
“When a woman tells the truth by beginning with her body, she cracks open the world. Lisa Nikolidakis’s memoir, No One Crosses the Wolf, is a force of nature, a story unearthed from under the weight of a father that brings a woman back to life. Sometimes we carry generational burdens that nearly crush us. Sometimes we run like the wind. This book is a triumph and soul song.”
“No One Crosses the Wolf is a striking, thoughtful, and engaging exploration of the inheritance of abuse—the way it passes through generations, the way it echoes through the lives of survivors.””
“This is a benediction as much as a book, a plea for, as Lisa Nikolidakis so beautifully puts it, the cradle of someone else’s tongue. No One Crosses the Wolf is for anyone who has ever been silenced, anyone who has ever had to learn to be a soft cradle to themselves. As a reader, as a writer, and as someone else who lives in this broken and beautiful world, I honor what Nikolidakis has made. This book will mean so much to so many.”
“Lisa Nikolidakis’s memoir illuminates the dark and unspeakable, in ourselves, in others. Her story is crucial, and her tenacious exploration of the farthest reaches of her life’s difficult corners leaves readers with a fascinating portrait of violence and survival, as well as insight into and comfort around shadows in their own.”
From Amazon:
A powerful memoir about the traumas of a perilous childhood, a shattering murder-suicide, and a healing journey from escape to survival to recovery.
Growing up, Lisa Nikolidakis tried to make sense of her childhood, which was scarred by abuse, violence, and psychological terrors so extreme that her relationship with her father was cleaved beyond repair. Having finally been able to leave that relationship behind, surviving meant forgetting. For years, “I’m fine” was a lie Nikolidakis repeated.
Then, on her twenty-seventh birthday, Nikolidakis’s father murdered his girlfriend and her daughter, and turned the gun on himself. Nikolidakis’s world cracked open, followed by conflicted emotions: shock, grief, mourning for the innocent victims, and relief that she had escaped the same fate. In the tragedy’s wake, questions lingered: Who was this man, and why had he inflicted such horrors on her and his last victims? For answers, Nikolidakis embarked on a quest to Greece to find her father’s estranged family and a reckoning with the past she never expected.
In her gripping and moving memoir, Nikolidakis explores not only the making of a killer but her own liberation from the demons that haunted her and her profound self-restoration in the face of unimaginable crimes.