A History of Scars: A Memoir

Written by Laura Lee

Narrated by Emily Woo Zeller

From a writer whose work has been called “breathtaking and dazzling” by Roxane Gay, this moving, illuminating, and multifaceted memoir explores, in a series of essays, the emotional scars we carry when dealing with mental and physical illnesses—reminiscent of The Collected Schizophrenias and An Unquiet Mind.

In this stunning debut, Laura Lee weaves unforgettable and eye-opening essays on a variety of taboo topics.

In “History of Scars” and “Aluminum’s Erosions,” Laura dives head-first into heavier themes revolving around intimacy, sexuality, trauma, mental illness, and the passage of time. In “Poetry of the World,” Laura shifts and addresses the grief she feels by being geographically distant from her mother whom, after being diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, is relocated to a nursing home in Korea.

Through the vivid imagery of mountain climbing, cooking, studying writing, and growing up Korean American, Lee explores the legacy of trauma on a young queer child of immigrants as she reconciles the disparate pieces of existence that make her whole.

By tapping into her own personal, emotional, and psychological struggles in these powerful and relatable essays, Lee encourages all of us to not be afraid to face our own hardships and inner truths.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Mar 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9781797121109

Laura Lee

Laura Lee is a writer based in Chicago. She holds a BA in comparative literature from New York University and an MFA in creative writing from Purdue University. A History of Scars is her first book.

Reviews for A History of Scars

[Maria Grzywacz · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I always feel bad when giving a harsh review to a memoir, because I feel like "judging" someone's life.
Here, the "low score" comes solely from how the book is written; to me, it was so incoherent (which is really amusing, because Lee writes in the book how good she is at constructing coherent narratives and editing other writers' work). Several pieces of information about the author's family were repeated, I wish there was a stronger narrative in this book. Maybe, however, in the way it is written, it provides a unique "peek" into how Lee's mind functions. She has suffered a lot, she is struggling with a mental illness, her mind, her thoughts are not typical, and maybe that is being expressed through the writing style too.
Still, with that in mind, I was very little excited about this book, even though it sounded very promising. I had high hopes for it.

[Amy Fortin · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Phenomenal! The touch on so many different topics; childhood trauma, parental relationships, parental illness, mental illness of self and family, queerness, racism, love, loss, survival! I am suggestions to my clinical team at work so they can reference some of the essays for their patients. Beautiful!