A collision with a moose on a dark highway left Susan Mockler with an incomplete spinal injury, suddenly compromising her ability to walk and to care for herself. She spent months in a rehabilitation facility learning how to adjust to her new reality, and though her body partially recovered, every aspect of her life changed.

Fractured is a compelling illumination of the challenges of acquired disability and the ways in which people with disabilities are sidelined and infantilised. Mockler, a psychotherapist, speaks with frank honesty about her family and friends’ reactions to her injury, and the hard-won lessons that she and those around her learned from her experience.

Susan Mockler is a disabled writer living in Kingston, Ontario. Her stories and essays have been published in magazines across Canada and the U.S. Fractured: A Memoir is her first book.

Susan Mockler's profile page

"A fascinating and compelling read. I’d recommend it to anyone wanting to expand their worldview and learn more about life with disabilities."

Palmer Library Reviews

“A powerful memoir that has a lasting impact on a reader’s worldview. Susan Mockler skillfully weaves a sophisticated narrative that brings us inside her struggle with a severe spinal cord injury, not just showing us her fight for mobility, acceptance, and understanding, but allowing us to feel it in some part… Fractured is a story of courage and perseverance and I absolutely recommend it for everyone.”

Quarantine Review

"It was a delight to read this compelling work by Disabled peer, Susan Mockler. The style kept me engaged and enraged with its reminders of how society is not set up for Disabled people—and not just in physical ways… I appreciated Fractured for normalizing Disability, sharing lived experience, and guiding readers though the process of uncovering internalized and external ableism.”

The Skeleton Press