Overview

‘The cold reality of my gender was dawning on me. It was motherhood that forced me to understand the timeless horror of our position. The reason women had not written novels or commanded armies or banked or doctored or explored or painted at the same rate as men. The cause was not, as I had been led to believe, that women had been prevented from working. Quite the opposite: We had been doing all of the work, around the clock, for centuries.’ After her first book was published to acclaim, journalist Megan K. Stack got pregnant and quit her job to write. She pictured herself pen in hand while the baby napped, but instead found herself traumatised by a difficult birth and shell-shocked by the start of motherhood. Living abroad provided her with access to affordable domestic labour, and, sure enough, hiring a nanny gave her back the ability to work. At first, Megan thought she had little in common with the women she hired. They were important to her because they made her free. She wanted them to be happy, but she didn’t want to know the details of their lives. That didn’t work for long. When Pooja, an Indian nanny who had been absorbed into the family, disappeared one night with no explanation, Megan was forced to confront the truth: these women were not replaceable, and her life had become inextricably intertwined with theirs. She set off on a journey to find out where they really came from and to understand the global and personal implications of wages paid, services received, and emotional boundaries drawn in the home. As she writes herself: ‘Somebody should investigate. Somebody should write about all of this. But this is my life. If I investigate, I must stand for examination. If I interrogate, I’ll be the one who has to answer.’

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9781912854066

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Reviews

Praise for Every Man in This Village is a Liar: `Every Man in this Village is a Liar is an electrifying book by an extraordinary foreign correspondent. Megan Stack has braved the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, decoded the secrets of Israel and Egypt. She shows us what war and terror have done to humanity in the 21st century. Read it if you have the courage to care about your country, its allies and its enemies.' * Tim Weiner, author of <i>Legacy of Ashes</i> * Praise for Every Man in This Village is a Liar: `[Stack's] soaring imagery sears itself into the brain, in acute and accurate tales that should never be forgotten by the wider world, and yet always are ... Anyone wishing to understand the Middle East need only look into the faces of war that Stack renders with exceptional humanity - the bombers as well as the bureaucrats, the rebels and the refugees, the victors and the victims.' STARRED REVIEW * Booklist * Praise for Every Man in This Village is a Liar: `Every Man in This Village is a Liar is a courageous report from the front lines of the hostilities between the West and the Muslim world. Journalist Megan Stack sheds the customary pretenses of her profession to show us - with blistering eloquence and her own raw nerves laid bare - war's impact on the non-combatants who bear the brunt of its horrors. You'll be thinking about this book long after you turn the final page. I hope it finds a wide audience. My congratulations to Ms. Stack.' * Jon Krakauer, author of <i>Where Men Win Glory</i> * `Women's Work is an incredible follow-up to Megan Stack's celebrated book of war reportage, Every Man in This Village Is a Liar. It is a fierce and furious and darkly funny book about the costs of motherhood: the psychological costs, the costs in time and energy and spirit, and finally the costs imposed on other women, most of them also mothers, who leave their own children so they can take care of ours. I can't think of a work that speaks more directly to our age of increasing inequality, starting with housework and child care, the oldest inequalities of all.' -- Keith Gessen, author of <i>A Terrible Country</i> `Megan Stack is willing to confront hard questions that so many of us flinch from: the relationships between women and the women we hire to take care of our houses and our children, to do the traditional women's work that gives liberated women the time to do traditional men's work. Women's Work is a book of vivid characters, engrossing stories, shrewd insights, and uncomfortable reflections.' -- Anne-Marie Slaughter, President & CEO of New America, and author of <i>Unfinished Business</i> `If Karl Ove Knausgaard himself were a woman and had given birth, he might have written a book a little like Women's Work. Megan Stack's mastery of language and attention to detail make magic of the most quotidian aspects of life. But the subject matter here is hardly banal. Stack goes beyond her own experience of motherhood to focus on the Chinese and Indian nannies who helped her raise her children at the expense of their own. She brilliantly dissects the contradictions of motherhood by analyzing how motherly love becomes a commodity in this modern, globalized word.' -- Barbara Demick, author of <i>Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea</i> `Women's Work hit me where I live, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. The discomforting truths Stack reveals about caretaking and labor transcend cultural and national boundaries; this book is relevant to everyone, no matter how or where they live. Stack uses her reporting acumen to illuminate domestic workers' struggles, but also fearlessly reveals the most vulnerable details of her own life in order to make her point. The masterfulness with which she tells these intertwined stories makes this book not just a work of brilliant journalism but a work of art.' -- Emily Gould, author of <i>Friendship: A Novel</i> and <i>And the Heart Says Whatever</i>.

Praise for Every Man in This Village is a Liar: `Every Man in this Village is a Liar is an electrifying book by an extraordinary foreign correspondent. Megan Stack has braved the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, decoded the secrets of Israel and Egypt. She shows us what war and terror have done to humanity in the 21st century. Read it if you have the courage to care about your country, its allies and its enemies.' * Tim Weiner, author of <i>Legacy of Ashes</i> * Praise for Every Man in This Village is a Liar: `[Stack's] soaring imagery sears itself into the brain, in acute and accurate tales that should never be forgotten by the wider world, and yet always are ... Anyone wishing to understand the Middle East need only look into the faces of war that Stack renders with exceptional humanity - the bombers as well as the bureaucrats, the rebels and the refugees, the victors and the victims.' STARRED REVIEW * Booklist * Praise for Every Man in This Village is a Liar: `Every Man in This Village is a Liar is a courageous report from the front lines of the hostilities between the West and the Muslim world. Journalist Megan Stack sheds the customary pretenses of her profession to show us - with blistering eloquence and her own raw nerves laid bare - war's impact on the non-combatants who bear the brunt of its horrors. You'll be thinking about this book long after you turn the final page. I hope it finds a wide audience. My congratulations to Ms. Stack.' * Jon Krakauer, author of <i>Where Men Win Glory</i> * `A self-critical and heartfelt narrative ... beautifully written, informative, and sometimes harrowing as she recounts the joy, fear, and exhaustion of becoming a mother. What women - and men - can learn from Stack's story is that women's work , in all of its complexity and construction, should not be only for women.' STARRED REVIEW * Kirkus * `Women's Work is an incredible follow-up to Megan Stack's celebrated book of war reportage, Every Man in This Village Is a Liar. It is a fierce and furious and darkly funny book about the costs of motherhood: the psychological costs, the costs in time and energy and spirit, and finally the costs imposed on other women, most of them also mothers, who leave their own children so they can take care of ours. I can't think of a work that speaks more directly to our age of increasing inequality, starting with housework and child care, the oldest inequalities of all.' -- Keith Gessen, author of <i>A Terrible Country</i> `Megan Stack is willing to confront hard questions that so many of us flinch from: the relationships between women and the women we hire to take care of our houses and our children, to do the traditional women's work that gives liberated women the time to do traditional men's work. Women's Work is a book of vivid characters, engrossing stories, shrewd insights, and uncomfortable reflections.' -- Anne-Marie Slaughter, President & CEO of New America, and author of <i>Unfinished Business</i> `If Karl Ove Knausgaard himself were a woman and had given birth, he might have written a book a little like Women's Work. Megan Stack's mastery of language and attention to detail make magic of the most quotidian aspects of life. But the subject matter here is hardly banal. Stack goes beyond her own experience of motherhood to focus on the Chinese and Indian nannies who helped her raise her children at the expense of their own. She brilliantly dissects the contradictions of motherhood by analyzing how motherly love becomes a commodity in this modern, globalized word.' -- Barbara Demick, author of <i>Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea</i> `Women's Work hit me where I live, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. The discomforting truths Stack reveals about caretaking and labor transcend cultural and national boundaries; this book is relevant to everyone, no matter how or where they live. Stack uses her reporting acumen to illuminate domestic workers' struggles, but also fearlessly reveals the most vulnerable details of her own life in order to make her point. The masterfulness with which she tells these intertwined stories makes this book not just a work of brilliant journalism but a work of art.' -- Emily Gould, author of <i>Friendship: A Novel</i> and <i>And the Heart Says Whatever</i>.

Praise for Every Man in This Village is a Liar: `Every Man in this Village is a Liar is an electrifying book by an extraordinary foreign correspondent. Megan Stack has braved the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, decoded the secrets of Israel and Egypt. She shows us what war and terror have done to humanity in the 21st century. Read it if you have the courage to care about your country, its allies and its enemies.' * Tim Weiner, author of <i>Legacy of Ashes</i> * Praise for Every Man in This Village is a Liar: `[Stack's] soaring imagery sears itself into the brain, in acute and accurate tales that should never be forgotten by the wider world, and yet always are ... Anyone wishing to understand the Middle East need only look into the faces of war that Stack renders with exceptional humanity - the bombers as well as the bureaucrats, the rebels and the refugees, the victors and the victims.' STARRED REVIEW * Booklist * Praise for Every Man in This Village is a Liar: `Every Man in This Village is a Liar is a courageous report from the front lines of the hostilities between the West and the Muslim world. Journalist Megan Stack sheds the customary pretenses of her profession to show us - with blistering eloquence and her own raw nerves laid bare - war's impact on the non-combatants who bear the brunt of its horrors. You'll be thinking about this book long after you turn the final page. I hope it finds a wide audience. My congratulations to Ms. Stack.' * Jon Krakauer, author of <i>Where Men Win Glory</i> * `Megan Stack obliterates the silence that upholds one of our greatest taboos: our universal reliance on domestic labor that women - women of colour especially - are expected to supply freely or cheaply. With journalistic rigor, Stack centres the complicated lives of women who clean our homes and care for our children, but it's her willingness to shine a light into the dark, typically untouched corners of her own family, privilege, and ambition that makes this book soar.' -- Angela Garbes, author of <i>Like a Mother</i> `A self-critical and heartfelt narrative ... beautifully written, informative, and sometimes harrowing as she recounts the joy, fear, and exhaustion of becoming a mother. What women - and men - can learn from Stack's story is that women's work , in all of its complexity and construction, should not be only for women.' STARRED REVIEW * Kirkus * `Women's Work is an incredible follow-up to Megan Stack's celebrated book of war reportage, Every Man in This Village Is a Liar. It is a fierce and furious and darkly funny book about the costs of motherhood: the psychological costs, the costs in time and energy and spirit, and finally the costs imposed on other women, most of them also mothers, who leave their own children so they can take care of ours. I can't think of a work that speaks more directly to our age of increasing inequality, starting with housework and child care, the oldest inequalities of all.' -- Keith Gessen, author of <i>A Terrible Country</i> `Megan Stack is willing to confront hard questions that so many of us flinch from: the relationships between women and the women we hire to take care of our houses and our children, to do the traditional women's work that gives liberated women the time to do traditional men's work. Women's Work is a book of vivid characters, engrossing stories, shrewd insights, and uncomfortable reflections.' -- Anne-Marie Slaughter, President & CEO of New America, and author of <i>Unfinished Business</i> `If Karl Ove Knausgaard himself were a woman and had given birth, he might have written a book a little like Women's Work. Megan Stack's mastery of language and attention to detail make magic of the most quotidian aspects of life. But the subject matter here is hardly banal. Stack goes beyond her own experience of motherhood to focus on the Chinese and Indian nannies who helped her raise her children at the expense of their own. She brilliantly dissects the contradictions of motherhood by analyzing how motherly love becomes a commodity in this modern, globalized word.' -- Barbara Demick, author of <i>Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea</i> `Women's Work hit me where I live, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. The discomforting truths Stack reveals about caretaking and labor transcend cultural and national boundaries; this book is relevant to everyone, no matter how or where they live. Stack uses her reporting acumen to illuminate domestic workers' struggles, but also fearlessly reveals the most vulnerable details of her own life in order to make her point. The masterfulness with which she tells these intertwined stories makes this book not just a work of brilliant journalism but a work of art.' -- Emily Gould, author of <i>Friendship: A Novel</i> and <i>And the Heart Says Whatever</i>.

Author Information

Megan K. Stack is the author of Every Man in This Village Is a Liar, which was a finalist for America’s 2010 National Book Award and an Australian bestseller. She reported on war for the Los Angeles Times from dozens of countries, and was most recently Moscow bureau chief. She was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in international reporting.

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