A collision with a moose on a dark highway left Susan Mockler with an incomplete spinal injury, suddenly compromising her ability to walk and to care for herself. She spent months in a rehabilitation facility learning how to adjust to her new reality, and though her body partially recovered, every aspect of her life changed. Fractured is a compelling illumination of the challenges of acquired disability and the ways in which people with disabilities are sidelined and infantilised. Mockler, a psychotherapist, speaks with frank honesty about her family and friends’ reactions to her injury, and the hard-won lessons that she and those around her learned from her experience. Reviews: "Susan Mockler is a force—in writing, in life, in the world. Fractured is an unflinching look at the realities, both systemic and individual, of disability, and a testament both to the power of human will and to our need, as a society, to do better. Grace, determination, and power illuminate every page of this beautiful book. These words will stay with you forever." —Amanda Leduc, author of Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space, and The Centaur’s Wife "Susan Mockler's memoir is equal parts devastating and empowering. As she details her experience of recovery after a serious car accident, she fulfills a key aim of disability narratives by suggesting different paths forward. 'Recovery,' as she writes, is not ‘a return to self,’ but a reformation, a recombination of the shattered pieces to create an exhilarating, new whole. That’s precisely what she’s achieved here." —Adam Pottle, author of Voice: On Writing with Deafness About the Author: Susan Mockler is a disabled writer living in Kingston, Ontario. Her stories and essays have been published in magazines across Canada and the U.S. Fractured: A Memoir is her first book. |