UW Press: In My Father’s Arms

In My Father's Arms
A Son's Story of Sexual Abuse
Walter A. de Milly III
Foreword by Richard B. Gartner and a preface by the author

“A sensitive and compelling account of father-son incest. In spite of the suffering portrayed, the account also gives testimony to the strength of family bonds, and to the courage and resilience of the human spirit.”
—Fred S. Berlin, MD, Director of the National Institute for the Study, Prevention and Treatment of Sexual Trauma

A timely account of child sexual abuse and recovery

To the outside world, Walter de Milly’s father was a prominent businessman, a dignified Presbyterian, and a faithful husband; to Walter, he was an overwhelming, handsome monster. This paperback edition of In My Father’s Arms: A Son’s Story of Sexual Abuse adds a reflective preface by the author and a foreword by Richard B. Gartner, author of Beyond Betrayal: Taking Charge of Your Life after Boyhood Sexual Abuse.

Portrait of author Walter A. de Milly III Walter A. de Milly III lives in Key West, Florida. He has been a victim advocate at a domestic abuse shelter, served on the board of the national organization MaleSurvivor, and worked with the UNESCO Committee on the Rights of the Child.

“This is the most detailed and utterly plausible account I’ve ever read of what it feels like to be an abused child, and it is told with cinematic presence and verisimilitude. The anger, the love, the evasiveness and jealousy and confusion, the need to dissociate oneself from one’s own actions and reactions—all are presented in a harrowing narrative, which is as tragic as a Greek drama and as engrossing as a Victorian novel. The unexpected element in this book—which falls on it like manna—is its nourishing, exquisite lyricism.”
—Edmund White, author of A Boy’s Own Story

“In a calm and beautiful voice, de Milly takes us on a horrific adventure, untwisting the wreckage of his youth. In the end, he stares down his father’s soul with an honesty that heals his own. This book is unforgettable.”
—Annie Dillard, author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, winner of the Pulitzer Prize