From Lucia Osborne-Crowley, author of I Choose Elena, comes an immersive polyphonic memoir exploring the intricacies of abuse, trauma, and shame. Through the voices of women, trans and non-binary people around the world and her own deeply moving testimony, Lucia speaks of vulnerability and acceptance, and the reclaiming of ourselves in a world that repeatedly asks us to carry the weight of the shame of the atrocities committed against us. Widely researched and boldly argued, My Body Keeps Your Secrets reveals the secrets a body keeps - the trauma that can rewrite our biology, our relationship with sex, and how we connect with others, establishing Lucia's credentials as a key intersectional feminist thinker of a new generation.

Aged 15 and on track to be an Olympic gymnast, Lucia Osborne-Crowley was violently raped on a night out. The injuries she sustained that evening ended her gymnastics career, and eventually manifested in life-long chronic illnesses, which medical professionals now believe can be caused by untreated trauma. In a brilliantly researched and deeply affecting essay, Osborne-Crowley invites the reader to her on decade-long journey to recovery: from the immediate aftermath of the assault, through years of misdiagnosis, to the solace and strength she found in writers like Elena Ferrante. The author's investigations reveal profound societal failures - of law, justice, education and the healthcare system. An essential contribution to the field of literature on assault and trauma, I Choose Elena argues that it is only through empathy than we can begin to address the self-perpetuating cycle of sexual violence.