-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
An intimate, linked, lyrical essay collection focusing on the longer-lasting effects of trauma and PTSD on survivors—challenging a culture in which violence against women is normalized and illuminating the nonlinear, complex nature of recovery—from the acclaimed author of Goodbye, Sweet Girl.
The trauma of surviving an abusive marriage didn't make Kelly Sundberg stronger. In fact, it nearly broke her. But leaving the abuse behind was not the end of the story but the beginning of a new one. In that journey, Sundberg learned in ways both good and bad, that one doesn't necessarily get to leave abuse behind. Sometimes, everywhere you go, the memories of the abuse go with you. First learning to coexist with her rage and then turn that rage into strength and power, Sundberg's journey to alchemizing her suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder into post-traumatic stress growth was neither easy nor simple. But far from bleak, her story provides vital insight into the little-known recovery process, and how healing is possible.
A narrative following a process of discovery as Sundberg's personal story is juxtaposed against established research, The Answer Is in the Wound offers a redemptive arc for trauma survivors, arguing for healing through an acceptance of their new state of being. Sundberg uses metaphors like the act of erasure—shown in erasure poetry created from her abusive ex-husband's apologetic emails—and includes theories from psychiatrists and researchers like Judith Herman, Bessel van der Kolk, and Peter A. Levine to construct a balanced meditation on trauma and the imprint it leaves.
For readers of In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado and The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison, The Answer Is in the Wound is a beautiful, devastating, and nuanced examination into embracing a new reality after trauma and finding power and beauty in it.
"[E]ach hard-earned, heart-worn word matters. A painfully beautiful memoir that will appeal to readers of Carmen Maria Machado while also being utterly, unforgettably original." —Library Journal (starred review)
"Along her erratic continuum of recovery, Sundberg's investigation...grants the reader a powerful narrative that is raw, authentic, and full of fragile hope. Excruciatingly, ragingly tender, written with reverence for the complexity of love, womanhood, and language itself." —Kirkus Reviews
This information about The Answer Is in the Wound was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Kelly Sundberg is the author of Goodbye, Sweet Girl: A Story of Domestic Violence and Survival, published by Harper in 2018. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times Modern Love column, Alaska Quarterly Review, Guernica, and elsewhere. Her essays have been published or selected as notables in Best American Essays four times. She has a PhD in creative nonfiction. She lives, writes, and edits in Columbus, Ohio.
If you liked The Answer Is in the Wound, try these:
Will There Ever Be Another You
by Patricia Lockwood
Published 2026
From the Booker Prize finalist and "formidably gifted writer" (The New York Times), a vertiginous novel about a woman's descent into illness and insanity.
by Carol Smith
Published 2022
A powerful exploration of grief following the death of the author's son that combines memoir, reportage, and lessons in how to heal.
by Natasha Trethewey
Published 2021
A chillingly personal and exquisitely wrought memoir of a daughter reckoning with the brutal murder of her mother at the hands of her former stepfather, and the moving, intimate story of a poet coming into her own in the wake of a tragedy.
I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
