Join authors Jessica Pierce Rotondi '07 and Akemi Johnson '04 in conversation about Jessica's book What We Inherit. Synopsis: In the wake of her mother's death, Jessica Pearce Rotondi ('07) discovered CIA documents in her childhood home that brought to light a family ghost: her uncle Jack, who disappeared during the CIA-led “Secret War” in Laos in 1972. The letters lead her across Southeast Asia in pursuit of the truth that has eluded her family for decades. What We Inherit: A Secret War and a Family's Search for Answers combines investigative journalism with memoir to crack open the American proxy war that left Laos the most heavily bombed country in the world. Her debut has earned praise from Salman Rushdie, Ron Chernow, and O, The Oprah Magazine, who just named it one of the best books of summer. Rotondi is a journalist and contributing editor at The History Channel and will be in conversation with Akemi Johnson ('04), author of Night in the American Village: Women in the Shadow of the U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa, a vivid look at the enduring wounds of U.S.-Japanese history in Okinawa. A former Fulbright scholar to Japan, Akemi has contributed to The Nation, NPR’s All Things Considered and Code Switch, Travel + Leisure, Anthony Bourdain's Explore Parts Unknown, and other publications. She earned an MFA in fiction writing from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and an AB in East Asian Studies from Brown.

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