The Past Still Breathes: A Memoir of Survival, Reinvention and Global Adventure

Kirstyn Lewis is a New Zealand born-Australian memoirist. The Past Still Breathes is a brave and unforgettable portrait of a woman no longer willing to be reduced by her past but wise enough to know it still has something to teach her. Raw, elegant and emotionally propulsive, The Past Still Breathes offers a cinematic sweep of a life well lived told with the intimacy of a late-night girls confession. It is bold and urgently contemporary: this is a memoir that will resonate with every woman who has been judged, dismissed, misled or survived the unthinkable. The Past Still Breathes is a globally resonant story of a woman's emotional journey through adoption, bipolar, single motherhood, institutional power and coercive control. Lewis writes with rare honesty about the shame that shapes a life and the extraordinary courage required to confront and overcome what we inherit and attract across cultures and continents. For book clubs, podcasts, universities, women's organisations and readers who seek a more inclusive, introspective conversation around what women inherit, their resilience and ability to overcome patriarchal or outdated systems designed to keep them compartmentalised, and the joys of sisterhood.