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'A ground-breaking, uncompromising and unflinching memoir about grooming, intergenerational trauma, grief and love.
'My mother knew I was abused as a child. She had read letters sent from my abuser to me…But she never spoke to me about them, or what they described. And she never intervened to stop the abuse…Now she is dying and the past is rising to the surface like a bruise.
'When Gemma Carey was twelve years old, a man twice her age would sneak into her bedroom on a weekly basis and sexually assault her. When Gemma was seventeen, she took the perpetrator to court without anyone else knowing and had him placed on the child sex offenders register. When she was thirty-three, her mother died of cancer. For twenty years, her mother had known about this man. But why had she not acted to protect her daughter? Could the genesis of this betrayal be found in her own family history?
'No Matter Our Wreckage is the story of past and present colliding. It seeks to capture the complexity of forces which lead to abuse; to understand the intertwined narratives of mothers and daughters and how trauma becomes encoded in our DNA through generations. It explores grooming and the intricacies of consent, and how as a society we have not yet figured out how to deal with these types of crimes or the people who commit them.
'No Matter Our Wreckage is a powerful, poetic and unflinching memoir about what it means not to matter, and how an extraordinary woman refused to listen to the stories she was being told about herself - by her history, by her abuser, by her mother, by society. It is only by speaking out that Gemma Carey learns she can break free from her past and reclaim her life, her self and her future.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
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Brittany Higgins’ Memoir Will Join a Powerful Australian Collection Reclaiming Women’s Stories of Trauma. Here Are Four
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 15 April 2021;
— Review of Eggshell Skull 2018 single work autobiography ; No Matter Our Wreckage 2020 single work autobiography ; The Anti Cool Girl 2015 single work autobiography ; The Girls : A Memoir of Family, Grief and Sexuality 2019 single work autobiography'Brittany Higgins has signed a book deal with Penguin Random House Australia. Not just any book — a memoir.'
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I Wrote a Memoir about Abuse. That Doesn't Mean You're Entitled to Every Detail
2020
single work
column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 23 October 2020;'Some assume memoirists have given up their rights to privacy. According to Gemma Carey, this couldn’t be further from the truth.'
-
Brittany Higgins’ Memoir Will Join a Powerful Australian Collection Reclaiming Women’s Stories of Trauma. Here Are Four
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 15 April 2021;
— Review of Eggshell Skull 2018 single work autobiography ; No Matter Our Wreckage 2020 single work autobiography ; The Anti Cool Girl 2015 single work autobiography ; The Girls : A Memoir of Family, Grief and Sexuality 2019 single work autobiography'Brittany Higgins has signed a book deal with Penguin Random House Australia. Not just any book — a memoir.'
-
I Wrote a Memoir about Abuse. That Doesn't Mean You're Entitled to Every Detail
2020
single work
column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 23 October 2020;'Some assume memoirists have given up their rights to privacy. According to Gemma Carey, this couldn’t be further from the truth.'