The Books That Made Me by Vanessa Govender, author of the memoir Beaten but not Broken
More about the book!

Jacana Media has shared a feature called The Books That Made Me by Vanessa Govender, author of Beaten but not Broken.

At the height of her journalism career, more than one million households across the country knew her name and her face. Govender shot to fame as one of the first female Indian television news reporters in South Africa.

Yet Govender, a champion for society’s downtrodden, was hiding a shocking story of her own. In Beaten But Not Broken, she finally opens up about her deepest secret – her five-year-long hell in an abusive relationship.

In Beaten but not Broken, Govender tells a graphic story, how she lived with the pain and ultimately how she was saved by her own relentless fighting spirit to find purpose and love.

The Books That Made Me by Vanessa Govender

Title: To Kill a Mockingbird
Author: Harper Lee

A story that stirred my teenage soul and birthed an activist without me even realising that standing up for those who can’t do so for themselves made me one.

Title: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak

On its pages I learned how ordinary words could be woven to transport a reader to places, to taste and even smell what is written of and every moment that book remained closed I would feel the loss and withdrawal of being away from the characters. This story, Zusak’s finely spun thread of words and sentences imbued me always now even more so as an author to understand how seemingly ordinary words can magically transform and make a reader physically feel its meaning.

Title: The Choice
Author: Edith Eva Eger

As a survivor of abuse at the hands of my first boyfriend and childhood bullying, the trauma of which remains entrenched in my soul and on my skin, this true story of a survivor in a concentration camp made my mind soar and ignited a will to live, to turn my own pain into purpose and tragedy of what I endured into triumph! You cannot read this and remain unchanged. You cannot read this and not feel elevated. It is a life-altering read, relevant to every human being whoever you are and whatever your circumstances.