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The Girls

An All-American Town, a Predatory Doctor, and the Untold Story of the Gymnasts Who Brought Him Down

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The Girls

Written by: Abigail Pesta
Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers
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About this listen

The inside story of how serial predator Larry Nassar got away with abusing hundreds of gymnasts for decades - and how a team of brave women banded together to bring him down.

We think of Larry Nassar as the despicable sexual predator of Olympic gymnasts - but there is an astonishing, untold story. For decades, in a small-town gym in Michigan, he honed his manipulations on generations of aspiring gymnasts. Kids from the neighborhood. Girls with hopes of a college scholarship. Athletes and parents with a dream. In The Girls, these brave women for the first time describe Nassar's increasingly bold predations through the years, recount their warning calls unheeded, and demonstrate their resiliency in the face of a nightmare.

The Girls is a profound exploration of trust, ambition, betrayal, and self-discovery. Award-winning journalist Abigail Pesta unveils this deeply reported narrative at a time when the nation is wrestling with the implications of the MeToo movement. How do the women who grew up with Nassar reconcile the monster in the news with the man they once trusted? In The Girls, we learn that their answers to that wrenching question are as rich, insightful, and varied as the human experience itself.

©2019 Abigail Pesta (P)2019 Hachette Audio
Sexual Abuse & Harassment Sports & Outdoors True Crime United States Gymnastics Biography

Critic Reviews

"Abigail Pesta's The Girls is a riveting, angering, un-put-down-able and ultimately triumphant story. With new information at every turn, this impeccably reported, eloquent narrative provides stunning insights into the saga of the most prolific sexual predator in sports history. An unforgettable book, which only a woman could write with the nuance, depth, and compassion it deserves." (Sheila Weller, author of Girls Like Us and The News Sorority)

"Like no one else writing today, Abigail Pesta penetrates deep into the anguish of people, particularly women, who are caught in seemingly hopeless situations, when nobody will listen to them. In The Girls, Pesta details the incredible untold stories of how dozens of teenage gymnasts, after decades of abuse by a trusted doctor, finally break through his small army of powerful protectors and send him to jail for at least one hundred years." (Paul Steiger, former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal and founding editor of ProPublica)

"Deeply personal, powerful, and filled with stunning new insights into the Nassar scandal, this gripping narrative grabs you by the heart and leaves you cheering for these courageous women who felled a beast." (Joanna Coles, executive producer of The Bold Type, author of Love Rules, and director, Snap)

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