I’m sure we’ve all asked ourselves, ‘How would I cope if … (insert your greatest personal fear)’. In Broken Brains two very brave, articulate women share their experiences to help give us the courage to face that question. Both have confronted incredible difficulties in their lives – one having to cope with brain tumours and the other dealing with the trauma of a difficult childhood. The fact that both can now write about what they’ve been through is testament to their courage and strength.
Jamila Rizvi has been awarded many accolades for championing women’s rights. She describes herself as ‘The woman who had her one-in-a-million brain tumour removed. Twice.’
Rosie Waterland is an author, comedian, podcaster and public speaker. Her complex childhood is something that I doubt I could have survived. But survive it she did and flourished. However, as she points out, ‘Childhood trauma has no endpoint’ and admits that writing this book is one of ‘the scariest things I’ve ever done’.
Both women go into detail of their treatments over the years and their great benefits. I was particularly taken by Jamila using kintsugi, the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together using gold, as a metaphor for healing.
Broken Brains is not exactly bedtime reading but it’s so empowering to learn how people have been able to cope with whatever life throws at them. It gives us insight into the ‘How would I cope if …’ question. Here are two examples of people who just got on and dealt with it.
Reviewed by Russell Thomson
ABOUT THE AUTHROS
Jamila Rizvi is a broadcaster, public speaker and social policy expert, as well as the bestselling author of Not Just Lucky and The Motherhood. As deputy managing director of Future Women, Jamila champions women’s economic security and gender equity in Australian workplaces.
She has been named one of Culture Amp’s 25 Emerging Global Culture Creators, included in the Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence and won the Women and Leadership Australia Award for Excellence in Women’s Leadership in 2020.
At age 31, Jamila was diagnosed with a rare type of recurrent brain tumour, and now lives with complex disabilities due to acquired brain injury.
Rosie Waterland is an author, comedian, podcaster and public speaker, but mostly calls herself a writer. Her first two books, The Anti Cool Girl and Every Lie I’ve Ever Told, were critically acclaimed, national bestsellers.
Her podcasts ‘Mum Says My Memoir is a Lie’ and ‘Just the Gist’ have over 20 million combined downloads, earning her an Australian Commercial Radio Award and Australian Podcast Award. She had written for various TV projects and nationally toured three one-woman shows.
Rosie has spent much of her adult years dealing with the debilitating symptoms of trauma caused by prolonged exposure to abuse and toxic stress in her childhood.
0 Comments