Penguin published a lie? Yes, says Canada filmmaker, claims her ‘sex assault’ called ‘consensual’ in 'attacker's' memoir

Canadian filmmaker Zoe Greenberg is accusing Penguin Random House of “knowingly” publishing journalist Leah McLaren’s memoir which framed an episode of sexual assault as “consensual”.

Leah McLaren’s book named Where You End I Begin reportedly has mentioned the night the incident took place when Greenberg was sexually assaulted by her two close friends. Greenberg shed light on the issue of misrepresentation on Medium when she said, “I was drunk. I was crying. I was barely conscious, on my back by the side of a pool. I didn’t want it. They both sexually assaulted me. He did, then she did.”

Zoe and Leah used to be close friends before the unfortunate night and the former has alleged that Leah is one of her two assailants.

Before the book was even released, Greenberg had flagged concerns about the contents of the memoir. She wrote that she lived with a “trauma in a buried place that I could not fully access.” She added that she decided to go public only after the book was issued.

Zoe and Leah discussed the book before its release

According to Zoe, Leah had informed her about the contents of the book and it “seemed” that she was following standard memoir protocol while McLaren was producing it.

Zoe said, “A couple of years before publication, she (Leah) informed me I’d be depicted in the book, alongside the story of – how she put it – ‘what happened’ to me.”

Both the parties, according to Zoe, had spoken at length about the events of the night.

Over the next couple of years, as Leah was in the process of writing her memoir, Zoe remained “cautiously friendly” to her.

Zoe confronts Leah

Soon after the book was published, Zoe was shocked to find out that Leah had framed the night of the assault as being consensual.

She confronted Leah and even recorded the entire conversation.

“To my surprise, McLaren immediately apologised. She said she was sorry for her part in it, ‘for being an active participant’. She said she ‘always knew that it was awful, that it was wrong’ and it was ‘not nice’ for me,” said Zoe.

She added, “She said she understood ‘when our friendship ended, it was because of that, and whatever happened that night was traumatic and awful’.”

Penguin makes ‘substantial changes’

Canada’s largest publishing house, Penguin Random House, said in a statement to The Guardian that they have made “substantial changes” in the book to address the concerns of Zoe Greenberg.

“We will use this moment to reflect on our own internal processes and identify ways in which we can best serve our books, our authors, our communities, and our readers,” it further said.

With inputs from agencies

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.