Feature Book of the Week
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"A Life Reclaimed" By Ashya Osman |
The title of these memoirs is ‘A Life Reclaimed’. It tells the story of a girl/young woman (up to the age of 27)’s struggle for freedom and happiness within her strict family in a predominately Moslem country (Turkey) where women are routinely oppressed.
Due to the sensitive nature of some of the subject matter, it has been written under the pseudonym of Aysha Osman and the names of all characters changed.
The book’s USP is the no-nonsense raw style of stream-of-consciousness emotion, combined with the insightful nature of the content. From the first page, the reader begins to identify with the little Aysha, and feels the pain in her young heart.
From a very tender age, she is given the kind of responsibility that most people don’t have to shoulder until adulthood. We vividly experience her tremendous frustration as she fights to have something resembling a normal childhood while at the same time endeavouring to satisfy the demands of her neurotic and work-obsessed parents.
As she grows up, we accompany her through the trauma and aftermath of physical and sexual abuse, neglect and harassment, fledgling relationships and separation, right through to her eventual escape from the social and psychological confines imprisoning her. All the while, despite often plumbing the depths of despair, she never loses her sense of hope and determination that she will one day succeed in finding her freedom and happiness despite the many obstacles.
While it’s true that plenty of people have tough childhoods/lives, A Life Reclaimed has a lot to offer those who engage with it in terms of understanding themselves and others better. The author’s interest lies in the field of personal development and spirituality, and she has also completed several years of counselling studies.
It is a self-help book in the sense that it offers insight into the intricacies of childhood development and aids understanding of how our experiences as children shape who we are today. Although most readers will not have had such extreme upbringings, the emotions that Aysha expresses are universal and will strike a chord with many people, particularly women.
