requiring new bursts of courage.” What takes this brilliant work from a personal story to a cultural touch point is the way Foo situates her experiences into a larger conversation about intergenerational trauma, immigration, and the mind-body connection (“I was casting abuse and bad parenting as a central theme across my community-was this perpetuating a negative, unhealthy stereotype?”). “C-PTSD is a wily shape-shifter,” she writes. Foo also writes of the therapeutic work she undertook in her adulthood to heal and the agency she’s gained from it. To find her “redemption arc” and reckon with her trauma, Foo felt she needed “to tease apart the careful life I have crafted for myself, the one that is threatening to unravel at any minute.” She exceeds her intention by delivering a heartrending portrayal of the physical abuse she suffered as a child at the hands of her parents, immigrants from Malaysia (“If you are beaten for hundreds of mistakes, then every mistake becomes dangerous. PACES Connection “ What My Bones Know is not only uniquely suited for audio, but constructs a creative audio experience that challenges… listener in unexpected and illuminating ways.Foo, radio journalist and former producer of This American Life, recounts her astounding story of living with complex PTSD (C-PTSD), a diagnosis that describes the psychological pain experienced by those who’ve suffered recurring traumas. She gazes at me from her serene office, where sunshine glows through her gauzy curtains, birdsong bursts through the windows, and one of those little fountains with a giant marble on it burbles, which I guess is supposed to be relaxing. I finished this book with awe and gratitude. What My Bones Know Prologue Do you want to know your diagnosis I blink and stare at my therapist. The Australian “raw, vulnerable, transformational, messy, eloquent, captivating. Kirkus “An intimate, deeply engrossing story of psychological recoverY.”

USA Today “a sharp, insightful and stirring memoir.” Possibility still glows around the edges of her sight.” Library Journal (starred review) “Foo's happy ending is nothing short of deliverance – rich and joyful and full of care the child was denied. In telling her story so compellingly, she nuance to the “model minority” myth, if not actively subverting it. NPR “Foo’s writing is shrewdly insightful. The New York Times “An unflinching reminder of the hidden struggles many face, told with the keen eye of a researcher and the brutality of a documentarian.”

Publisher’s Weekly (starred review) “Absorbing… a reckoning, and Foo approaches it with candor and rigor…profoundly affecting.” Praise for What My Bones Know, a NYT Bestseller 4.52 stars on Goodreads “What takes this brilliant work from a personal story to a cultural touch point is the way Foo situates her experiences into a larger conversation about intergenerational trauma, immigration, and the mind-body connection… This is a work of immense beauty.”

What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo