Climbing Out of the Wreck By Christine Stein

CLIMBING OUT OF THE WRECK

A Survivor's Tale

By Christine Stein [a pseudonym]

with Foreword by Suzanne Somers

Climbing Out of the Wreck is the story of a courageous young woman who grew up in a home headed by a sexual predator who molested her sister from the age of three, and then raped her when she grew older. Christine’s mother lost her mind when Christine was only fourteen, disappearing until she was a mother herself. Her story recounts the secrets and lies that were designed to protect the darkest family secret of all, which had the effect of making the eight children strangers to each other, and then prisoners of the passions that disordered their lives and set them against each other.

Christine’s story is filled with intense dramas - the horrifying revenge of the chosen son, the struggle between mother and daughter to the edge of the grave, and finally, the saga of Christine’s climb out of the family wreck: how choosing life instead of abortion and the birth of her child provided a new compass; how the family traumas failed to derail her quest to free herself and her new family from the chains of the past. The climax of her tale is a showdown with her siblings set off by the dark revelations of the sister at the center of the family secret. 

In Climbing Out of the Wreck, you'll learn:

·    How an abusive family operates under a web of secrets to cover up the crimes that its members commit - in this case the father’s rape of his daughter and the mother’s collusion... and the toll this takes on individual members who are made to feel guilty every time they tell the truth. For example, the victim in this story took her parents to court where they attacked her as a liar, a drug addict and a party animal.

·    The way the abuses are handed down through the generations

·    How Christine's mother went insane and forced her to be on her own at the age of 14... and how this abandonment was repeated from previous generations.

·    The toll the abuses and lies took on her 7 siblings... how it wrecked their lives.

·    How she rescued herself by deciding to have her child as a single mother and by dedicating her life to seeing that he did not grow up in a home like hers.

This is an inspiring, beautifully told story of individual courage with life lessons for others seeking to break free of similar circumstances.

"Eye-opening, riveting, jaw-dropping, courageous, heartbreaking, infuriating, and ultimately victorious; a significant contribution to the cycle-of-abuse literature." (Kirkus Reviews)

“A survivor’s tale indeed. This was like reading my story. The damage done to children by abuse and alcoholism is lifelong unless you are able to take back your life. The child feels it’s their fault, creating the continual cycle of destruction to prove again and again that you really are the piece of crap you’ve been programmed to believe. Very few find their way out, so deep is the damage. Christine Stein did it. If you’ve lived any version of this life, read this book and you will find hope, help, and inspiration to fix yourself and inherit the life you have always deserved. Her story has meaning. This is a great and important work.” 

—Suzanne Somers, actress and author of "Keeping Secrets"

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Christine Stein is the pseudonym of a photographer who achieved national prominence after creating a charity devoted to horse rescue, eventually named the official charity of the Kentucky Derby. She has been married for twenty-five years and has one son and two grandchildren.