Devorah Fields, a former teen actress and model, is hiding out from her estranged, abusive husband in her childhood home in the Malibu hills. With every odd creak, she fears the worst—her husband’s return.
Her father, a former Hollywood heavyweight turned con artist, is serving time in federal prison. Her mother, an English born actress, has fled to her home country out of shame and embarrassment.
All that remains is the family’s old house (the scene of Devorah’s chaotic upbringing), her precious cat Fergie, and a young stepmother who won’t stop calling.
Devorah is scared, lost and lonely. She’s also determined to revive the talented young woman she once was, but first, she must come to terms with the truth of her past and admit her greatest sin—that she’s abandoned herself.
Excerpt from Woman Unbroken:
It took me three days of opening every door and window to chase out the dead air that had been trapped in the house for the past few years. Since it was January, the air crept in, welcoming at first in its freshness, though as the sun began to set, it became breath from the arctic. While I was desperate for fresh air, fresh anything, opening up the house left me filled with dread that he, my husband, would show up in a threatening rage.
As I unpacked all of my old life with him, I thought, you stay away from us. You don’t show up with your big truck and your pocket knife and your loud voice and your threats. You stay away from us for good now.
I repeated this mantra for the first three days as if to make it a prophecy. At the same time, Fergie investigated every inch of the house that was brand new to her with curious sniffs and feeling around with her long, white whiskers.
“Get used to it, Ferg. This is home for now, and who knows for how long.”
In our first few weeks in the house, Fergie and I lived like hermits. We spoke to no one but each other in soft voices. We barely walked outside except to get the mail even though we knew what came was not for us. Mostly it was just letters for Father from lunatic fans or angry victims. The only times I left the house were to buy necessary provisions, mostly cat food and bread and butter for toast. Leaving the house in those weeks was no easy feat.
It involved a complicated process of first checking to make sure Fergie was accounted for (usually sleeping in a circle on the massive couch), then checking that all the windows and doors were shut and locked and that I’d remembered to wedge the stick of wood in the track of the sliding glass door, in addition to locking it. Then all the yellowed curtains had to be drawn so that no one could see in.
After I felt certain that the window and door process was complete, I’d slowly open the door and stand with it ajar, listening. I listened for the sounds of cars, of music, of voices, anything that seemed out of place in our desolate canyon. Instead, I always heard the usual canyon noises; the wind sliding down the hills, rustling the sagebrush, coyotes yipping, searching for prey.
Crystal Woman is an exploration on ways we give up our power to the authorities in our lives, how we hold on to trauma and how we can release it, transforming it into our greatest strengths.
This collection of poems is dedicated to the divine feminine within all of us, the one who is howling to be heard under a duct-taped mouth, a blindfold and the full hunter’s moon.
Crystal Woman tells us the time to rip off the tape and blindfold is now. It is time to step forward, to walk into that lonely terrain, into the forests drenched in fear and unknown experiences, to come through to the other side, into our full power. It is only then that we can reclaim the best parts of ourselves we’ve been hiding out of fear for far too long.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT WOMAN UNBROKEN
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This was a wonderfully written novel with an emotional, empowering and inspirational storyline which had me hooked from start to finish.
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Woman Unbroken is an emotional story from start to finish and is a well written tale... It is an emotionally charged tale of shame, fear, hate, love, loss, guilt, hope, want, need, anger, embarrassment, forgiveness, and so much more.
Jenny
Jenna D.
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This was one of those novels that draws you in instantly with vivid storytelling and really captivating characters. It was not far into the book before I was really rooting for our main character and cared about her as if she were someone I knew personally. This was a book with a lot of depth and emotion, one that definitely took me for a ride. I look forward to reading more from this author.
Felicia B.
About the Author
Alexandra Fleder is an energy healer, a writer and a native daughter of Los Angeles. Woman Unbroken is her first full length novel. She has previously published a poetry chapbook titled Crystal Woman with Bottlecap Press. She loves cats, reading, plants, hiking through the canyons, and going to the beach, no matter what time of year.
CONTACT
I love to hear from readers, so please feel free to contact me:
hello [at] alexandrafleder.com.
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