The Red Parts

Late in 2004, Maggie Nelson was looking forward to the publication of her book Jane- A Murder, a narrative in verse about the life and death of her aunt, who had been murdered thirty-five years before. The case remained unsolved, but Jane was assumed to have been the victim of an infamous serial killer in Michigan in 1969. Then, one November afternoon, Nelson received a call from her mother who announced that the case had been reopened- a new suspect would be arrested and tried on the basis of a DNA match. Over the months that followed, Nelson found herself attending the trial with her mother and reflecting anew on the dread and fear that hung over her family and childhood. This feeling derived not only from the terrible facts of her aunt's murder but also from her own complicated journey through sisterhood, daughterhood and girlhood. The Red Parts is a memoir, an account of a trial, and a provocative essay that interrogates America's obsession with violence, particularly against women, and that scrupulously explores the nature of grief, justice and empathy, never before published in the UK.