She and I sat down and I explained the whole thing to her and it was as if a mirror was held up. I started to really see what had happened to me and slowly from there, work to be able to call it what it had been, which was a cult. At the time, I had no frame of reference because most people I think have a very specific definition of what cult is. That was years before I started writing this book. But I started writing from then, trying to write it in poetry, trying to figure out how to make it make sense to other people, all the while also trying to hide from the people I thought might come after me and try to hurt me if I said something bad about them. And now we’re here, talking to you.

A deeply honest and viscerally lyrical descent into the self, Levin’s book shines a fluorescent light of masterful, sharp prose on the twisted depths of trauma, and takes our hand as we bear witness to the profane, the absurd, the banal, and the violent, so that we don’t have to navigate that horror alone, as he once did.” —Matt Young, author of Eat the Apple Ray was best man at Kerik’s wedding, but there was a falling out: Ray’s testimony landed Kerik behind bars for corruption. Talia, loyal to her father, had declared her independence from Teresa, and spent time in a homeless shelter in Bridgewater, New Jersey, rather than live under Teresa's roof. The process of trying to answer that question, to arrive at a clear definitive answer to who is this man, or even what are his intentions, was for me kind of a trap. If you spend your energy trying to figure out who your abuser is or if they're a good person, you're not leaving. The thing on the other side of the scale that outweighs everything is, he was the person who was hurting me and I didn't deserve that. If Levin wasn’t the only one having doubts, he never saw evidence of it. His fellow students either totally revered Ray or were too terrified to say otherwise.It takes a lot of courage to make yourself vulnerable again, to relive that experience writing about it. When I was asked to interview Daniel Barban Levin about his recent memoir, Slonim Woods 9(Crown), I was on board right away. It was about a cult, a subject that I find highly intriguing. I’ve read books about cults, watched all the cult documentaries, thought a lot about what draws people into cults, what pathologies make up a cult leader. And even more intriguing is that this particular cult narrative involved a small group of students attending Sarah Lawrence College. Even if Larry wasn’t a special government operative, at the very least he had some kind of connections,” Levin writes. “Which meant that if I just left, or acted against him, I would never be safe.” No, not besides what she’s told me. I know he was in the marines and everything, and he’s done some intelligence work. When they’ve talked on the phone, Talia’s put him on speaker with us. Me and Isabella.” Right, I guess so. I wish I had written another one, so I had something to compare it to. I certainly have developed an immense amount of admiration for anyone who does this, because it’s so strange and I don’t think I appreciated how strange it is to try to write down what’s happened to you until I was doing it.

An inside look at the ‘Satanic, neo-Nazi’ pedophile cult that ensnared NYC man arrested on gun charges Ray's crimes first came to light in a report from The Cut, of New York Magazine, which prompted authorities to investigate the allegations made in it of his abuse. Talia Ray has also been investigated as a co-conspirator of her father, but no charges have been brought against her. The other factor that Ray exploited was the groundwork Talia laid, repeating for any roommate who would listenthe litany of woe she and her father had faced.

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It brings me to the question of, how did I answer that question for myself at the time? How did I feel that what was going on was wrong enough that I had a clear enough answer that I could step away? People are so negative about the word ‘brainwashing,’ ” he sniffed. “I don’t see what’s wrong with it. That is what I’m doing. I’m washing your brains. You should tell your dad that.” It has now been two years since this story first published. It had an immediate impact when it was published. It became a criminal investigation, a case that is still going on. What was the reaction directly to you after this came out?