What’s Done Cannot Be Undone

Neither inspirational memoir nor trauma porn but a searing, incisive new account of disability and the realities of living with cerebral palsy

This is not an inspirational memoir. This is not trauma porn. This is a memoir about the forces that impact our lives, both good and bad.This is not an inspirational memoir. This is not trauma porn. This is a memoir about the forces that impact our lives, both good and bad.

Athena Stevens has never learned the name of the doctor whose lack of intervention at her birth lead to her cerebral palsy, but she feels the consequences of his actions – and inaction – every day. The factor observed first and foremost in her life will forever be the effects of what other people have done to her, rather than her accomplishments. And yet, she was groomed to believe that she would overcome any force that stood in her way.

A memoir like no other, What’s Done Cannot be Undone takes readers on a whirlwind journey through Athena’s life, providing a profound insight into the realities of moving through the world as a disabled woman. From being born ‘dead’ to co-founding the Women’s Equality Party; from not being picked to play the back of a cow to an Olivier Award nomination, this complex, lyrical, gut-punch of a memoir is laugh-out-loud funny, unrelentingly furious, and a powerful reminder that changing the world singlehandedly is as impossible as defying the laws of physics.