Fortunate Daughter: A Memoir of Reconciliation

by Rosie McMahan

Overview

Rosie’s sins were never difficult to recall; they lined themselves up like baby ducks in her mind’s eye. Her confession to Father Hart one day in 1974 went like this: “I didn’t finish all my chores. I stole the Halloween candy my mom hid in the pantry. And I let my Daddy touch my private places.”

Though it begins as an all-too-common story of childhood sexual abuse, Fortunate Daughter gradually becomes a rare story of how one person heals from that early trauma. In this intimate first-person narrative, Rosie McMahan offers the reader a portrait of misery, abuse, and hurt, followed by the difficult and painful task of healing—a journey that, in the end, reveals the complicated and nuanced venture of true reconciliation and the freedom that comes along with it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781647420246
Publisher:	She Writes Press
Publication date:	04/13/2021
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Rosie McMahan was brought up in Somerville, MA, at a time when kids and dogs roamed the streets in unlawful packs and the walk to a barroom or Catholic church was less than a quarter of a mile in any direction. She and her husband moved to western Massachusetts in 2001 to raise their children.

Rosie’s writing has received prizes and she can be seen reading in local venues, including Pecha Kucha (a local storytelling event), the annual Garlic & Arts Festival, and the Greenfield Annual Word Festival (GAWF). She has also been published in several journals, including Silkworm, Typehouse Literary Magazine, Black Fox Literary Magazine, the 2017 Gallery of Readers Anthology, and Passager Journal. She currently lives in Amherst, MA.

Editorial Reviews

2021 CIBA Journey Book Awards First Place Winner

“Fortunate Daughter is a compelling memoir about the searing pain of abuse, the tenacity of resistance, and, ultimately, the deep capacity for healing and forgiveness. Woven through the personal narrative are the threads of resilience that transform wounds into wisdom—vital teen rage, caring helpers outside the family, outstanding trauma therapy, and making amends. Rosie McMahan’s life journey illustrates how all of us humans grow ‘strong at the broken places.’”
—Steve Brown, director of the Traumatic Stress Institute of Klingberg Family Centers

“You will be drawn in immediately. Suspenseful and unsentimental. I have never seen a story like this depicted before. If Rosie’s family exists, there must be other families like hers. Impressive.”
—Debra Granik, independent filmmaker, nominated director and screenwriter of Winter’s Bone

“Thank you, Rosie, for the gift of your bravely rendered and well-articulated story. Every survivor story needs telling. You tell us, ‘I didn't know what category to put my suffering in.’ As a sister survivor, that rang true for me. I welcome the narrative of your unique yet familiar experience being added to all the others we know, so far. The more we know of and about each other, the more the world can be a place for us all to reside—pridefully and in community.”
—Donna Jenson, author of Healing My Life from Incest to Joy

From the Publisher