Literary Trauma

Some children scream. Maya Sanders didn’t. At just seven years old, Maya is returned to a home filled with shadows—and when the system checks the boxes, she says nothing. Not because she’s okay. Because she knows silence is safer. When Maya is placed with Janine Thompkins, a foster mother who sees beyond behavior, a quiet war begins—not just for custody, but for truth. As Janine uncovers what Maya cannot say, she faces a system designed to measure compliance, not pain. A devastating, lyrical novel about the cost of being unheard—and the quiet revolution it takes to be free. Some ...

He was trained to kill before he could read. Now the ghosts of the jungle want justice. Torin "Jungle" Adeyemi returns to the place where his soul was first carved into something deadly. A forgotten training camp hidden deep in the Haitian wilderness. Once a boy soldier forced to kill his best friend, now a haunted man seeking answers, Jungle walks through the ruins of his past to confront the man who made him a weapon. Commander Pascal Desrosiers. From the cracked soil of Port-au-Prince to the blood-soaked jungle paths of Les Enfants du Sang, this brutal and poetic novel explores what ...

🔥Two novels. One haunting journey through collapse, survival and the fragile thread of humanity. From New York Times, USA TODAY, Amazon top-15, #1 Amazon Thriller and Dark Fantasy Bestseller Tamara Rose Blodgett / Marata Eros ✨ For fans of The Last of Us, The Road, and Station Eleven 📦 Includes the first two books in the Through Darkness Chronicles — plus an exclusive sneak peek at Book 3: Through a Dark Mirror. ⚔️ What happens when survival is no longer enough? A devastating EMP collapses the grid. Water dries up. Society disintegrates. And three separate groups—SEALs, ...

In this intimate memoir, renowned developer of Somatic Experiencing, Peter A. Levine—the man who changed the way psychologists, doctors, and healers understand and treat the wounds of trauma and abuse—shares his personal journey to heal his own severe childhood trauma and offers profound insights into the evolution of his innovative healing method.

"A poignant debut with beautiful writing." - Kirkus Review A broken man. A lost boy. A chance for redemption in the wilds of Northern Michigan. School custodian Buddy Robertson hides from the scars of abuse and loss, finding comfort only in the rhythms of the Northern Michigan wilderness—the hush of falling snow, the sweetness of maple sap, and the return of each spring's birdsong. He and his partner Mags live a quiet, humble existence. When Buddy meets Ben, a boy struggling with his own demons, their fragile bond forces Buddy to confront the painful past he has long buried. As seasons ...

Welcome to Rivers Solomon's dark and wondrous Model Home, a new kind of haunted-house novel. The three Maxwell siblings keep their distance from the lily-white gated enclave outside Dallas where they grew up. When their family moved there, they were the only Black family in the neighborhood. The...

“In the fairy tales about father–daughter incest—‘The Girl Without Hands,’ ‘Thousand Furs,’ the original ‘Cinderella,’ ‘Donkey Skin,’ and the stories of Saint Dymphna, patron saint of incest survivors—the daughters are all as you would expect them to be: horrified by...

Imagine, if you will, a disease - one that has only subtle outward symptoms but can hijack your entire body without notice; one that transfers easily between parent and child; one that can last a lifetime if untreated. According to Dr. Paul Conti, this is exactly how society should conceptualize trauma: as an out-of-control epidemic with a potentially fatal prognosis. In Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic, Dr. Conti examines the most recent research, clinical best practices, and dozens of real-life stories to present a deeper, richer, and more urgent view of trauma.

A Riveting, Heart-Wrenching Novel Based on a True Story of One Family’s Struggles In 1920, four-year-old Stella, a shy but vivacious tomboy, lives a seemingly typical life with her parents and three siblings in Columbus, Ohio. Her world changes forever when her mother runs away with a man Stella has never met. Their father panics about raising his children alone, especially with social services threatening to take his kids away. He believes he has no choice but to move them into a boarding house on Southwood Avenue, run by a deeply disturbed woman and her malicious son. Stella and her ...

"Violet Lemon" is a heart-wrenching, life-affirming journey through five decades of pain, survival, and ultimately—peace. It begins in December 1970, when young Violet and her brother are torn from their home and the loving father they once knew. Thrust into a world of instability, abuse, and betrayal, Violet’s childhood becomes a battlefield. Raised by a toxic mother and an abusive stepfather, she grows up surrounded by domestic violence, mental illness, addiction, and poverty. Told in powerful vignettes, this raw and poetic novel follows Violet over 50 years as she grapples with PTSD,...

HANNA MADELENE A Novella – Nr 1 in the Trilogy about Hanna Madelene Sweden, 1922. Eighteen-year-old Hanna Madelene lives alone in a rented room in Göteborg. By day, she folds linens, counts coins, and speaks only when spoken to. By night, she hums old hymns and remembers the forest—the moss-thick stillness, the secret songs, the spirits she was told to forget. She left Dalsland two years ago, fleeing a home shaped by silence and sorrow. Her mind, sensitive and attuned, turns every color into meaning, every sound into a signal. The world presses in too sharply—so her inner one grows ...

In the opening scene of Falling Man, Keith Neudecker emerges from the smoke and ash of the burning tower where he worked, and makes his way to the apartment of his ex-wife and young son uptown. Throughout this bold and haunting novel, DeLillo traces the way the events of September 11 kindled or rekindled relationships, reconfigured our emotional landscape, our memory, and our perception of the world.

Hidden deep in the Appalachian mountains, the Solista Commune promised sanctuary, purpose, and salvation. But for eighteen-year-old Lucy, born and raised under the rigid teachings of Kanen and Purin, devotion came at the cost of autonomy. When Lucy is sent beyond the commune's borders to a college in the outside world, her journey begins—not just into academia, but into freedom, identity, and unsettling truths. Torn between loyalty to her family and the awakening of her own voice, she must navigate friendships, love, betrayal, and trauma. The deeper she looks, the more tangled her past ...

A poignant and heart-wrenching coming-of-age story that follows the friendships, hopes, fears, and struggles of a group of Native high school students from Winnipeg, Manitoba’s North End, illuminating what it's like to grow up in the heart of an Indigenous city WINNER OF THE GOVERNOR GENERAL'S...

What if the garden you cherish hides secrets darker than the soil it grows in? Her Secret Garden is an emotionally charged, gothic coming-of-age novel—a haunting reimagining of The Secret Garden for a new generation. A psychological gothic thriller rooted in grief, resilience, and transformation, Her Secret Garden explores the line between inheritance and identity. Told through lyrical prose and searing diary entries, it’s a story of survival, soul, and second chances. Why readers love Her Secret Garden: A powerful YA coming-of-age story with complex, unforgettable characters Rich ...

They called her mad. But she might be the only one still telling the truth. In a cold mental institution where silence is enforced and truth is dismissed, Emily begins to unravel memories no one wants her to remember. Labeled unstable, her voice is ignored and her story erased. But buried beneath the diagnosis is something far more dangerous than madness: the possibility that she’s right. Told through the mind of an unreliable narrator, this psychological novel explores what happens when identity fractures, memory fades, and a woman fights to reclaim her story from those determined to ...

Journey Prize winner Shashi Bhat’s "powerful, surprising and terrifying" (Rufi Thorpe) story about a high school student's traumatic experience and how it irrevocably alters her life, for fans of 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, Girlhood, and Pen15. Bright, hilarious, and sensitive...

For fans of Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Miranda July–and the darker edge of Breaking Bad and Uncut Gems–comes a whip-smart, irresistible debut novel about a college senior who has 48 hours to sell her recently deceased mother's surprise stash of rare pills, or suffer the consequences. Arvy...

From authors featured on NPR, BBC, and the New York Times, and from emerging poets, comes a monumental anthology in which every poem sends shivers down your spine. Childhood’s joy and trauma expressed - with stunning talent and sincerity - by over 150 poets in more than 280 poems. Childhood spaces magnified by the human memory, populated by good and bad, by trips to hell and heaven, in an almost Hieronymus Bosch type of atmosphere. Over 150 voices call you to read this book. Read it. You will learn that childhood never goes away. You will be reminded of the beauty of the seraphim and the ...

Dr. Carrie Bryant's four years as a neurosurgical resident at White Memorial Hospital have earned her the respect and admiration from peers and staff alike. When given the chance of performing her first unsupervised brain surgery, Carrie jumps at the opportunity. What should have been a routine, hours-long operation turns horribly wrong and jeopardizes her patient's life. Emotionally and physically drained, Carrie is rushed back to the OR to assist in a second surgery.