What A Body Remembers: A Memoir of Sexual Assault and Its Aftermath

Written by Karen Stefano

Narrated by Nicole Poole

On a summer night in 1984, nineteen-year-old UC Berkeley sophomore Karen Thomas leaves her uniformed patrol job at the University of California Police Department and walks home alone in darkness. At the threshold of her apartment a man assaults her at knife point. After a soul chilling struggle she manages to escape and call 911. Police catch her assailant, she identifies him, and he is arrested.

Fast forward 2014, thirty years after her assault, when her life, once again, appears to be crumbling. As she stumbles her way through the days, navigating a dying marriage, devastating financial loss, and an elderly mother slipping into dementia at disheartening speed, she becomes fascinated by her own anxiety, by the PTSD still triggered by the sound of footsteps and she wonders, why does the body remember what the mind tries so desperately to forget? Her questions prompt an obsession with her assailant: Whatever became of him? What is he doing now? She begins a quest of excavation, determined to find out, tracking down the police report and court file from her case, and on the thirtieth anniversary of her attack returns to Berkeley and the scene of her assault. What she discovers is life altering.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Highbridge Company
• Release date: Jun 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9781684572212

Reviews for What A Body Remembers

[rosecityreader · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Karen Stefano is a lawyer and author. Her new memoir, What a Body Remembers: A Memoir of Sexual Assault and Its Aftermath, examines the lasting effects of trauma. Stefano was assaulted in college, went on to become a criminal defense attorney, and 30 years later was hit with anxiety and PTSD that she examines in her book.Her story is as compelling as the most exciting criminal thriller. She also addresses the seeming paradox of going from a crime victim to defending accused criminals, which makes her story particularly interesting. Most important, Stefano shows how there are many ways to heal from trauma, that the path is not always straightforward, but usually more of a two steps forward, four steps back process.What a Body Remembers is a powerful book and a great read for sexual assault survivors and their supporters, or anyone interested in “true crime” and our criminal justice system.