Finding Fran: History and Memory in the Lives of Two Women » (New Edition)

Lois W. Banner is a professor of history and gender studies at the University of Southern California. She is the author of several books, including In Full Flower: Aging Women, Power, and Sexuality; American Beauty; and Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A Radical for Woman's Rights.

Exploring the intersections of biography and autobiography, East and West, faith and reason, Finding Fran tells the story of two high school friends who took radically different paths: Lois Banner became an academic feminist, while Fran Huneke converted to Islam, joining the mystical Sufi Order and moving to Egypt.

Women's Review of Books

[She describes] a process of discovery that is startling, exhilarating and painful by turns....Candid and serious, Finding Fran is suffused with intelligence and at war with stereotypes....Unlike on the surface, Lois and Fran are still sisters at the core, and such a tribute to the resilience of friendship is worth the price of the book.