About The Book

The Secret Peep

The Shape of Her Eyes traces Elena’s journey from a cramped wooden house in Chaguanas to the hushed classrooms of Port-of-Spain’s elite convent school. She carries beauty that opens doors and secrets that close others. What begins as a child’s attempt to belong unfolds into a young woman’s struggle with identity, loyalty, and survival.
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About the Author

Anna Lederer Gordon

Anna Lederer Gordon’s life has been as varied as the worlds she writes about. After leaving Trinidad, she worked as a Bunny at New York’s Playboy Club, modeled in Geneva and London, and studied at the University of Geneva. Her camera lens captured stories across continents, but her pen always returned to the one story she couldn’t leave behind her own. She now lives and writes quietly in New York.
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Anna Lederer Gordon

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Anna Lederer Gordon

Stories by Anna Lederer Gordon

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Chapters

Glimpse into Chapters

Chinky Eye
A playground chant stings four-year-old Elena, marking her as “different.” Her mother’s arms offer comfort but not protection.
Mammy
A petite woman with unshakable resolve, Mammy insists that education is her daughter’s ladder out of poverty.
White People
Wide-eyed questions about skin and perfection reveal a child’s earliest myths and the cracks in them.
Celeste
The eldest sister, cheerful despite endless chores, bears the brunt of Pappy’s scorn for her “black black” skin.
The Airport

At eighteen, Elena makes her most wrenching choice: walking past her waiting family, eyes fixed forward, heart breaking.

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Step Into Elena’s World

Read The Shape of Her Eyes, a memoir that moves from laughter to heartbreak, from village streets to convent halls. It’s a story of survival, sacrifice, and the complicated inheritance of race and family.
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Reviews

Testimonials

“Reading Elena’s childhood felt like sitting in the yard with my own grandmother, hearing truths no one dared write down before.”

Marcia T.
“The memoir lingers. I finished it weeks ago, and I still catch myself thinking about Mammy’s prayers and Elena’s silence at the airport.”
Robert H.

“Anna Gordon doesn’t flinch. She shows the sweetness and the cruelty, often in the same breath.”

Elaine K.

“It’s not just a Caribbean story, it’s every family’s story about who gets chosen, who gets left out, and how it scars.”

Jamal P.

“The writing feels lived-in. The smells of Chaguanas, the convent classrooms, even the airport terminal, I could see it all.”

Sophie R.

“Painful, yes. But also tender. The love between Elena and Mammy carried me through the hardest parts.”

Daniel V.

“I read it aloud in my book club, and there were tears. Then debates. Then laughter. That’s the sign of a good book.”

Carla M.

“The Shape of Her Eyes gave me more than a story. It gave me questions I’m still asking myself.”

Victor L.