The Answer Is in the Wound - by Kelly Sundberg (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"Lyrical and brutal, intimate and culturally relevant. I've never read anything like it."--Maggie Smith

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

An affecting memoir-in-essays from the acclaimed author of Goodbye, Sweet Girl, The Answer Is in the Wound is a radical examination of the frac¬tured, nonlinear nature of life after trauma. In this remarkable account of her own road to healing, Kelly Sundberg challenges a culture in which violence against women is normalized and writes against the implicit demand for sur¬vivors to "get over it."

Kelly Sundberg's abusive marriage nearly broke her, and finding the courage to leave and begin the difficult process of putting herself back together was only the beginning of her story. Deeply courageous, The Answer Is in the Wound deftly explores the trials and joys Sundberg encountered not only as a newly sin¬gle parent but also as someone in full pursuit of life. She developed an appreciation for new spiritual practices, reclaimed her body through tattoos, and even became "the problem" rather than going along to get along in her profes¬sional life. From erasure poetry crafted from emails and a court-mandated apology letter from her ex-husband, to engaging with the research of some of the most prominent voices in fifty years of trauma psychiatry and psychology --from Judith Herman and Peter A. Levine to Bessel van der Kolk--The Answer Is in the Wound is a profound meditation on trauma and its lasting effects.

With the formal innovation and radical vulnerability of Carmen Maria Machado's In the Dream House and the cerebral precision of Leslie Jamison's The Empathy Exams, Sundberg's breathtaking collection offers a redemptive arc for trauma survivors and vital insight into what makes healing possible.

Review Quotes

Praise for The Answer Is in the Wound:

"With her signature openness, Sundberg leans into the complexity and opacity of her trauma, swirling the anomalous concoction of love for (and by) an abuser and squeezing the strangeness of heartbreak after abuse. Along her erratic continuum of recovery, Sundberg's investigation of and compassion for the identity-changing nature of her trauma 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

"In The Answer Is in the Wound, Kelly Sundberg explores what it means to be alchemized by trauma into something, and someone, new. With goosebump-raising erasures from her abusive ex-husband's emails, an essay entirely in couplets, and correspondence with law enforcement, this innovative collection is at once lyrical and brutal, intimate and culturally relevant. I've never read anything like it."--Maggie Smith, New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful

"The Answer Is in the Wound is a powerful, formally inventive book. Gratitude to Kelly Sundberg for such a tender and nuanced window into an arc of healing, of reevaluating the individual pieces of a self in an attempt to become whole again."--Hanif Abdurraqib, New York Times bestselling author of There's Always This Year and A Little Devil in America

"In this incandescent excavation of trauma and transformation, Kelly Sundberg beautifully braids scholarly insight and emotional truth to create a work of profound intricacy and grace. Warm, wise, and wildly insightful, The Answer Is in the Wound is both an intellectual exploration and a deeply human chronicle of survival, class, motherhood, magic, friendship, and independence."--Kimberly King Parsons, National Book Award-nominated author of Black Light and We Were the Universe

"The Answer Is in the Wound candidly depicts the resilience and creativity it takes to thrive after trauma and shows us how to find our way along the road to healing. Kelly Sundberg has given us a beautiful, necessary book."--Lori Gottlieb, bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone and New York Times "Ask The Therapist" columnist

"The Answer Is in the Wound upends, subverts, and refracts the trauma narrative. Sundberg describes the ways she has been harmed--by her abusive ex-husband, the system that enabled him, her own parents--but refuses to fit herself tidily into the role of 'victim.' She writes of healing, without claiming to have healed. She wields her anger without apology, and moves through the story with an armor made of silk: both strong and delicate. This book will be a balm for anyone navigating the fragmented, circuitous experience of building a new life after trauma."--Lilly Dancyger, author of First Love

"Healing is no linear thing. It's fragmentary. It warps time, the gutpunch of past trauma following us across miles, across decades. In this stunning collection of linked lyric essays, Kelly Sundberg captures this truth in form as well as subject, giving voice to the complexity of survival--its beauty and destruction. This book is a gift."--Megan Stielstra, The Wrong Way to Save Your Life

"Kelly Sundberg's meditative and profound collection ventures deep into the woods of her psyche to recover the broken pieces of herself after escaping abuse. Doing so, she traces the reverberations of her trauma, like the ripples outward from a stone dropped into a mountain lake, through her life and relationships. I felt the healing magic of her writing on every page of this lyrical, generous book."--Sarah Gerard, author of Sunshine State and Carrie Carolyn Coco

Praise for Kelly Sundberg and Goodbye, Sweet Girl

"Heartbreaking, breathtaking in its scope, and urgently truthful in its harrowing and tender examination of when empathy fails--and when it wins." --Los Angeles Review

"Reading Kelly Sundberg's writing--fresh, luminous, spirited--is a pleasure second only to witnessing her decision to survive." --Ariel Levy, author of The Rules Do Not Apply

"Mesmerizing and poetic, Goodbye, Sweet Girl is a harrowing, cautionary and ultimately redemptive tale that brilliantly illuminates one woman's transformation." --BookReporter

"This is an immensely courageous story that will break your heart, leave you in tears, and, finally, offer hope and redemption. Brava, Kelly Sundberg." --Rene Denfeld, author of The Child Finder

"A breathtaking gut-punch of a memoir . . . Sundberg gives us the truth in all its complexity; fear and hope and fury in gorgeous, near-cinematic prose that made me weep, and cheer, and understand." --Megan Stielstra, author of The Wrong Way to Save Your Life

About the Author

Kelly Sundberg is the author of Goodbye, Sweet Girl, published by Harper in 2018. Her essays have been featured in Best American Essays in 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2018, and her writing has appeared in the New York Times Modern Love column, Los Angeles Review, and The Rumpus. She has a PhD in creative nonfiction and she lives, writes, and edits in Columbus, Ohio.