I Choose Elena

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Aged fifteen and on track to be an Olympic gymnast, Lucia Osborne-Crowley was violently raped in Sydney on a night out, sparking a series of events that left her devastatingly ill for more than ten years of her life. Her path to healing began a decade later, when she told someone about her rape for the very first time. Lucia eventually found solace in writers like Elena Ferrante, and her work is about rediscovering vulnerability and resilience in the face of formerly unbearable trauma.

The author explores what has been proved, but is not yet widely known, about how trauma affects the body, bringing to our attention its cyclical, intergenerational nature; how trauma intersects with deeply held beliefs about the credibility of women; and how trauma is played out again and again in the fabric of our cultures, governments, judicial systems and relationships.

'If you buy one book today let it be this one...It moved me to tears and to anger.' - Daisy Johnson, author of Everything Under

'This book is burrowed deep under my skin.' - Jessica Andrews, author of Saltwater

Reviews

'If you buy one book today let it be this one...It moved me to tears and to anger.' - Daisy Johnson,author ofEverything Under

'This book is burrowed deep under my skin.' - Jessica Andrews, author ofSaltwater

'Startlingly intelligent, disturbing, profound and moving,I Choose Elenashows us that the #MeToo movement has grown roots, and that for survivors of rape and sexual assault, the revolution is just beginning. Osborne-Crowley gives us darkness wrought in light and the hope she offers is as palpable as it is hard-won.' - April Ayers Lawson, author,Virgin and Other Stories

'Thank-you Lucia Osborne-Crowley for writingI Choose Elena, for your bold and precise testimony on the devastation of sexual violence, on the body's extraordinary and destructive compulsion to contain its own trauma. Every one of the insights you share is extremely hard-won, and I am so grateful to you for putting them into this incredible book.' - Rosie Price, author,What Red Was

'This book burrowed deep under my skin. A searing, potent testament to the vital necessity of articulation in the struggle for women to own their bodies and find a language to talk about violence and trauma.' - Jessica Andrews, author,Saltwater

'A fierce, eloquent meditation on trauma, #MeToo, the body, pain and memory.' - Sinead Gleeson, author,Constellations

'Beautiful and sad and moving and too real in the finest way.' - Irish Times

Author Bio

Lucia Osborne-Crowley is a journalist, essayist, writer, and legal researcher. Her news reporting has appeared in ABC News, Guardian, Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Women's Agenda. Her long-form writing has appeared in The Lifted Brow and Meanjin.