Aura, Hillary Leftwich
Aura, Hillary Leftwich
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Aura
A Memoir

Author: Hillary Leftwich

Narrator: Hillary Leftwich

Unabridged: 6 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/13/2022

Synopsis

Aura is more than a memoir—it’s a spell book for survival, a powerful promise from mother to son, and an intimate examination of power, spirituality, and the abuse of both.Hillary Leftwich weaves together the stories of her life to create startlingly raw memories that are both personal and profoundly universal. She explores the devastating impact of patriarchy in her own life while searching for answers in witchcraft, womanhood, and motherhood. Urgently portrayed and deeply felt, Aura is a complex tapestry of letters, spells, and memories. Her story is a vivid confrontation against an unforgiving world that traps women and children in the systems meant to save them. This is a story for seekers, searchers, and anyone in the process of saving themselves and their loved ones.

About Hillary Leftwich

Hillary Leftwich is the founder and owner of Alchemy Author Services & Workshop, teaches at Lighthouse Writers, and is a creative writing professor at the University of Denver. She focuses her writing on class struggle, single motherhood, trauma, mental illness, the supernatural, ritual, and the impact of neurological disease. She is an intuitive Tarologist and has been reading Tarot for over twenty-five years. She lives in Denver with her partner, son, and a cat named Larry.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Andrea on May 20, 2023

I found a lot to identify with in this book, especially dealing with an abusive baby daddy. Most of all this book is a sort of love letter to Leftwich’s son and it is heartwarming in its sincerity. The writing is good and everything ties together really well.......more

Goodreads review by Gina on January 09, 2023

This book is so engaging, I nearly read it all in one sitting. Hillary's reflections on adolescence and childhood are painfully relatable. She articulates the struggles of womanhood in a way that is both very specific to her and universal at the same time. While I'd recommend anyone to read "Aura,"......more

Goodreads review by Kristen on June 11, 2022

Aura is gritty and magical, dark and light, and so, so powerful. I read the entire book in one sitting, I could not put it down. Hillary Leftwich is a fantastic writer and one of my favorite humans on this planet.......more

Goodreads review by Jayne on June 08, 2022

If you read one memoir this year, make it this one. A cautionary tale for those whose life choices have led them into relationships with abusers while mistaking them for saviours. A single mother at an early age to a son diagnosed as a toddler with epilepsy, Leftwich battles the boy's abusive father......more

Goodreads review by Ariel on June 29, 2022

Aura is a devastating memoir about a mother's love for her son amidst the traumas of abuse and illness. It weaves literal witchcraft—spells and rituals—throughout the story as antitodes to the darkness. A courageous story of survival. Thank you to Kevin at Future Tense for the advanced copy of Aura.......more

Quotes

“Stuck in tears and awe of Hillary’s vulnerability…[She] admits to having resistance to writing about her childhood because it feels dirty and secretive. But Aura engages with resistance by pushing into the dirt and secrecy and writing from those places because it feels necessary for survival and healing.” Steven Dunn, Whiting Award–winning author of Water & Power

“Let Hillary Leftwich to the front and may her remarkable memoir be read and celebrated far and wide.” Selah Saterstrom, author of Ideal Suggestions

“Unfortunately both trauma and spousal abuse are common experiences, but there is nothing common about Leftwich’s approach to writing…Aura is indeed a love letter. Written to her child, but also to and for herself, and to and for all of us. Hillary Leftwich writes a way forward in which she rescues herself and teaches us how to do the same.” Sarah Elizabeth Schantz, author of Fig

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