One Way Back: A Memoir

The compelling true story behind the testimony that awed the nation

On September 27, 2018, Christine Blasey Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee which was considering the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. She described an alleged sexual assault by the Supreme Court nominee that took place at a high school party in the 1980s. Her words and courage on that day provided some of the most credible and unforgettable testimony our country has ever witnessed.??

In One Way Back, Ford recounts the months she spent trying to get information into the right hands without exposing herself and her family to dangerous backlash. Drawing parallels to her life as a surfer, she explains the process of paddling out into unknown waters despite the risks and fears, knowing there is only one way back to shore. The book reveals riveting new details about the leadup to her testimony and its overwhelming aftermath and describes how she continues to navigate her way out of the storm.

This is the real story behind the headlines and the soundbites, a complex, page-turning memoir of a scientist, a surfer, a mother, a patriot and an unlikely whistleblower. Ford’s experience shows that when one person steps forward to speak truth to power, she adds to a collective whole, causing "a ripple that might one day become a wave.”

About the Author

Christine Blasey Ford is a professor of psychology at Palo Alto University and a clinical professor and consulting biostatistician at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Time?magazine included Ford on its shortlist for Person of the Year in 2018. In 2019, she was named one of the 100 most influential people in?Time?100, nominated by then-Senator Kamala Harris. In 2019, she won the inaugural Christine Blasey Ford Woman of Courage Award, and the ACLU's Roger Baldwin Courage Award.