Untwined, a Memoir, Joan in the Snake Pit

In Untwined, a spirited woman, Joan, unheard as a child and young adult, finds her voice and tells her story of survival. Heart in hand, she discloses secrets in life, love and science that will make you laugh and cry.
Almost fifty years ago, Joan tried to escape everyday life in the United States and sought foreign adventure in Germany. She found the familiar—love, heartbreak and children to care for. Travel and studies comforted her. She remained in Berlin to pursue a career in science and spent summers enjoying her children on the Greek island of Lesvos. She found a life in Germany that she could not have had elsewhere, exciting but not without problems.
Joan struggled with a complex life as a woman, mother and scientist, torn between two cultures in Berlin, an international hub. She and her friends, Susan and Mary, all in academic science, experienced both good and bad times. In Untwined, their stories unfold—the harrowing dishonesty and corruption witnessed during academic mediation, the aftermaths of unrequited love, the story of a love child whose father remained a secret, the making of a successful scientist and the enduring love of a mother.
In Untwined, Joan describes her work in science and role in discovering why a natural metabolite of vitamin A causes embryonic malformations if taken during the first trimester of pregnancy. Because of unfair practices at the University of Balboa, Joan approached the office of the ombudsman for help and advice. Joan vividly portrays the academic mediation in the prize-winning chapter “Joan in the Snake Pit.”
Susan relates how her love and marriage deteriorate during Berlin’s student revolution proclaiming free love. You meet her daughter, Sarah and husband Erik and learn of complicated mother-daughter relationships riddled by bipolar illness.
Mary tells the story of her love child, Jessika, whose biological father remained a secret during a turbulent divorce.
The three women make difficult choices. Joan avoided whistle-blowing to a government funding agency for her own survival. Susan chose her daughter and career over love. Mary focused on protecting her child but reveals that the biological father is her post doctorate advisor and a political activist.
Through their struggles in an unsupportive environment and the abuse of power, the young women survive experiencing the joy of being mothers and success as scientists.