Anke Richter is an international journalist and author based in New Zealand. Previously, she was a magazine writer, a producer for a TV interview show and a show business reporter in Germany.
As a freelance foreign correspondent in the Weltreporter network, she reported from the South Pacific on climate change and social issues before she started researching cults, which resulted in her latest book, Cult Trip. It became an international bestseller. Three other non-fiction books were published in Germany: Aussteigen auf Zeit, Zweihundert Tage in Tokelau and Was scheren mich die Schafe.
Her investigative and personal features have been published in Die Zeit, Spiegel, FAZ, taz, mare, New Zealand Geographic, North & South, The Spinoff, Canvas, Sunday (Stuff), Listener, The Fair Observer and others. She was associate producer and researcher for a number of documentaries, including Heaven and Hell: The Centrepoint Story and We Are One: The Mosque Attacks One Year On.
A leading journalist's intense, riveting and personal investigation into the worlds and minds of cults.
At a new age festival in Byron Bay, journalist Anke Richter is finding her spiritual awakening when she meets a woman - a survivor of the Auckland cult Centrepoint - who will change the course of her life and career.
Over the next ten years, Anke pursues a labyrinthine investigation into how and why cults attract, entrap and destroy otherwise ordinary people, asking what the line is between tribe and cult, participant and perpetrator, seduction and sexual abuse.
From the emotional and criminal carnage of Auckland's Centrepoint to an anti-cult conference in Manchester, the infamous Osho's ashram in India, the tantric Agama Yoga school in remote Thailand, and culminating in a visit to Gloriavale on the West Coast of the South Island, Anke uncovers a disturbing pattern of violence and suffering. Cult Trip is a powerful exploration of what really goes on inside the groups we call cults, and how to reckon with their aftermath.
'Wild stuff. Anke Richter is one of my favourite writers, blurring the line between participant and reporter' - David Farrier, journalist behind Dark Tourist and Tickled
'Thorough and compassionate ... Cult Trip is a brittle, sensitive book' Steve Braunias
'What a book and what a writer! Cult Trip is an incredibly immersive, intense and necessary reading experience put together with doggedness and skill. The stories are heart-rending, told with bravery and care.' Noelle McCarthy, author of Grand
'Phenomenal. I cannot recommend this book enough.' Tova O'Brien, Today FM
'Cult Trip is incredibly painful and powerful - an eye opener, a tour de force and a call for justice' Janja Lalich, author of Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships
'Bringing together information from around the globe, Anke Richter pinpoints the internal struggles of those coming out of cults, and the debilitating harm that lingers afterwards' Rachel Bernstein, cult specialist and educator
“Cult Trip: Inside the world of coercion & control” – which became a bestseller in New Zealand – will be released internationally as a paperback this week. Rachel Bernstein, Janja Lalich and others have given me supportive blurbs (see press release), and I’m on a number of cult podcasts over the next weeks.
Available on Amazon
No comments:
Post a Comment