Beautiful Trauma | Granta
  • Published: 06/04/2023
  • ISBN: 9781783785902
  • Granta Books
  • 272 pages

Beautiful Trauma

Rebecca Fogg

Late one night, Rebecca Fogg’s hand is partially amputated in an explosion in her flat. Quick thinking saves her life, but the journey to recovery is a slow one. As the doctors rebuild her hand, Rebecca (who also survived 9/11) rebuilds her sense of self by studying the physical and psychological process of recovery.

Interspersing the personal with the medical, Rebecca charts her year of rehabilitation, touching on the marvellously adaptable anatomy of the hand; how the brain’s fight or flight mechanism suppresses conscious thought so we can react instantly to danger; and why trauma causes some people to develop PTSD, while giving others a whole new lease of life.

Told with great emotional and intellectual clarity, BEAUTIFUL TRAUMA explores the resilient nature of the human spirit and the power we all hold in our hands.

A cheering, upbeat story of recovery from life-threatening injury; Beautiful Trauma frames healing as a dance of acceptance and readjustment, of effort and reward, as well as the exploration of new possibilities. Fogg's journey back to health is an inspiration

Gavin Francis

A powerful account of the human capacity for healing. It speaks to the deep reservoir of resilience in all of us

Dr Anna Lembke, bestselling author of Dopamine Nation

Captivating and insightful, Beautiful Trauma will have you rapt from the very first page. An extraordinary celebration of the human spirit - [it] will stay with you long after you turn the final page

Adrienne Brodeur, author of Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me

The Author

In 2008, Rebecca Fogg walked away from her New York life and career in financial services to move to London, where she co-founded the Institute of Pre-Hospital Care at London’s Air Ambulance, and continues to work, write, and learn Scottish fiddle. This is her first book.

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