Survivor Biography

In early 2022, life in the port city of Mariupol, Ukraine was safe and predictable for Adoriana Marik. The thirty-one-year-old tattoo artist loved walking her dog by the seaside and meeting friends at cafés and public gardens. But all that changed on February 24, 2022, when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his “special military operation.”

In April 2018, seasoned adventurer Ben Fogle and Olympic cycling gold medallist Victoria Pendleton, along with mountaineer Kenton Cool, took on their most exhausting challenge yet – climbing Everest for the British Red Cross to highlight the environmental challenges mountains face. It would be harrowing and exhilarating in equal measure as they walked the fine line between life and death 8,000 metres above sea level.

In 2014, Chessy Prout was a freshman at St. Paul's School, a prestigious boarding school in New Hampshire, when a senior boy sexually assaulted her as part of a ritualized game of conquest. Chessy bravely reported her assault to the police and testified against her attacker in court. Then, in the face of unexpected backlash from her once-trusted school community, she shed her anonymity to help other survivors find their voice.

Miracle Survivors provides that lifeline with a collection of stories of cancer survivors who were given a terminal diagnosis but shocked everyone by thriving years past their prognoses. These miracle survivors have different cancers and circumstances, but share a poor prognosis and incredible drive to overcome it.

Alexander Rosenberg was a smart and curious teenager who spoke many languages, and lived a pampered life with his parents in a tranquil Czechoslovakian town. The rise of fascism and Nazi Germany causes his protected existence to collapse, alongside the illusion of secular Jewish assimilation in 1930s Europe. Using their last reserves of wealth and influence to escape extermination, the Rosenbergs go underground to avoid the Gestapo. Eventually exposed, captured, and taken to Buchenwald, the largest concentration camp in Germany, Alexander and his father collaborate to survive one day at a time

Deep Dark Blue is a very personal and impactful account about surving sexual abuse in the Air Force Academy. More than a memoir about sexual assault, it's about breaking boundaries but also setting them. It's about learning to trust your instincts. And it's a story of survival, resilience, and finally, finding joy.

This striking work of narrative nonfiction tells the true story of six-year-old Sachiko Yasui's survival of the Nagasaki atomic bomb on August 9, 1945 and the heartbreaking and lifelong aftermath. Having conducted extensive interviews with Sachiko Yasui, Caren Stelson shares the true story of a young girl who survived the atomic bomb and chronicles her long journey to find peace. This special book offers listeners a remarkable new perspective on the final moments of World War II and their aftermath.

In 1994, Jeanne Celestine, a young Rwandan schoolgirl, was living a quiet life in the countryside when the death of Rwanda’s president provoked a 100-day extermination of over one million ethnic Tutsis. She survived by hiding from violent militiamen all the while caring for her three-year-old twin sisters, Teddy and Teta.

Un día ordinario se transforma en extraordinario por algún suceso que marca nuestras vidas y nos obliga a tomar decisiones que no estaban en nuestros planes. Al cambiar un camino ya establecido, nos alejamos de lo conocido para entrar en un mundo diferente que nos obliga a plantearnos interrogantes que antes no teníamos y un cierto temor nos invade al entrar en una búsqueda que sabemos será difícil y, quizás también, dolorosa.

Lolly has always known her mum was different. Sometimes Angela Bruce was ill in a quiet sort of way, but other times she roamed the Mansfield estate shouting about whatever had wormed its way into her head that day. Either way, Lolly was on her own, so she learned how to look after herself pretty quickly. Mal Fury has never got over the disappearance of his daughter all those years ago, but there's still hope because the police never found Kay's body.

Called to Peace is one part memoir and one part guidebook. Joy’s story and insight will help you to recognize the signs of an abusive relationship, as well as provide you spiritual truths to combat guilt and promote healing after abuse. Whether you are in an abusive relationship yourself, or desire to help someone else who is suffering from domestic abuse, this book offers hope, inspiration, and biblical guidance.

"I want you to like me, to think I am the most beautiful, the smartest, the thinnest...." With these words, Abby Kelly encapsulates the overwhelming struggle of her 15-year bout with anorexia. Beginning in her teenage years when the predatory lies of the disease took root in her psyche as she felt pressured from family and peers for not being "enough", Abby lays bare the reality of anorexia.

For seven years, Shannon Kopp battled the silent, horrific, and all-too-common disease of bulimia. Then, at 24, she got a job working at the San Diego Humane Society and SPCA, where in caring for shelter dogs, she found the inspiration to heal and the courage to forgive herself. With the help of some extraordinary homeless animals, Shannon realized that her suffering was the birthplace of something beautiful. Compassion.

Between 1930 and 1932, Henry Ford sent 450 of his Detroit employees plus their families to live in Gorky, Russia, to operate a new manufacturing facility. This is the true story of one of those families—Carl and Elisabeth Werner and their young daughter Margaret—and their terrifying life in Russia under brutal dictator Joseph Stalin.

Growing up in Australia’s suburbs, Paul never really felt like he fit in. But something in Paul always told him that there was a world out there that he needed to explore—he just didn’t know how to access it. The Australian military was the answer, but that service almost came to a brutal end when Paul was attacked by a bull shark in Sydney Harbor. Paul lost a hand and a leg, but he refused to accept limitations. In fact, the attack opened the door to a whole new life. One that would see Paul dedicate himself to the very animals that had tried to kill him….

In the spring of 1621, Plymouth Colony sent Stephen Hopkins to make the first visit to Wampanoag sachem Massasoit to present a red horsemans coat as a gift and sign of friendship. For most ordinary Englishmen, venturing off into the depths of unexplored America would have been a once in a lifetime adventure - but not for Stephen.

Across the US, student activists are exposing a pervasive cover-up of sexual assault on college campuses. Every day more survivors come forward. But other survivors choose not to. We Believe You elevates the stories the headlines about this issue have been missing - more than 30 experiences of trauma, healing, and everyday activism, representing a diversity of races, economic and family backgrounds, gender identities, immigration statuses, interests, capacities, and loves.

Before her death at 110, the pianist Alice Herz-Sommer was an eyewitness to the entire last century and the first decade of this one. She had seen it all, surviving the Theresienstadt concentration camp, attending the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, and along the way coming into contact with some of the most fascinating historical figures of our time. As a child in Prague, she spent weekends and holidays in the company of Franz Kafka (whom she knew as “Uncle Franz”), and Gustav Mahler, Sigmund Freud, and Rainer Maria Rilke were friendly with her mother.

Have you ever been told that you can’t do something, even if that something is your dream? Mohammed Yousuf’s Ascending Adversity will prove to you that you can.

Mais do que judeu, Eddie Jaku sempre se considerou alemão. Ele sentia orgulho do seu país natal. Mas, em novembro de 1938, tudo mudou: dez nazistas invadiram sua casa e o espancaram quase até a morte. Naquela noite, que ficou conhecida para sempre na história como a Noite dos Cristais, Eddie foi preso e levado a um campo de concentração.