Sunday 27 October, 1985. Susan was 15 years old and set out on a fishing trip in a boat with her mum, dad and older brother, Bill, on Westernport Bay in Victoria’s South East. As it grew dark, the boat suddenly sank. They clung to the boat in the dark waters, hoping for a passerby to save them. Finally, they had to make the decision to swim to shore. Susan’s father was struggling in the freezing water so Bill, the most experienced swimmer, stayed with his parents while Susan attempted to get help. Susan miraculously managed to swim to French Island, but her parents and brother didn’t survive.

The Girl Who Lived is Susan’s story. It opens with the inconceivable hate mail that she received for being the sole survivor of the accident. From the book’s get-go, we are hurled into the moment Susan’s life turned upside down and taken along for the ride.

Coming from a conservative, religious family, Susan’s innocence was soon lost to sex and drugs and whiling her nights away dancing at clubs to block out the pain of her loss. It was not until she gave birth to her son a few years later that her life took on a new sense of meaning.

I have a personal involvement with this story as Susan is my god-sister. My parents received the devastating news and brought Susan back to our house the next morning to recover from her ordeal. As a 12-year-old, this was the first time that I had been touched by death, other than that of an aging grandparent. Reading Susan’s story brought back those vivid memories and also completed the picture of the strong, spirited girl I knew all those years ago but lost contact with after the accident.

Written with brutal honesty, The Girl Who Lived is a raw, riveting and ultimately inspiring story of Susan’s personal quest for love and a sense of belonging. It is a shining example of how the human spirit can triumph against adversity.