My Heart Stopped Beating: A True Story, Teen Survivor Memories of Horror Mad Houses in Italy [Paperback]

Chamed (Author), Beniamino Soressi (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 2011

An extreme experience. A heartbreaking autobiographical novel. The author testifies to bewildering crimes, occurring in Italy, just three decades ago, inside an adoptive family and in a mental hospital. Unimaginable crimes almost too absurd to believe possible, that no one has ever before dared to expose to public scrutiny. Actual events chronicled from a reality so bizarre, so nightmarish, where demented and criminal madmen continued to segregate, abuse, and torture a sane and innocent young woman almost to the point of no return. A story of illness and despair, lovingkindness and hatred, healing and romance, friendship and superstition, loneliness and loss, envy and revenge, electroshock and the worst psychical and physical abuses in an asylum turned house of horrors. Yet, on a distant horizon, the only hope: A deliverance through the miraculous devotion of love. First edition worldwide

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Reading this book is a great privilege, that every reader will probably experience gratitude for."
Ed Carl, Editor

"A deeply moving story, incredible in its lucidity." Carlo Castelli, author of Nervi d'acciaio

"I could not stop reading it. It really stopped my heart."
Edmondo Rho, special correspondent for Panorama

"A real page-turner, impossible to put down."
Library Thing

"What a beautiful book!"
GoodReads

About the Author

Chamed is not the registry office name of the author, yet it is not a pseudonym. She lives in Tuscany, she works mostly abroad, as a painter on canvas and porcelain. Some of her porcelain works are displayed in exhibitions in Italy, Sweden and Poland, France, Portugal and Brazil. "My Heart Stopped Beating" is her first novel. A second novel by her is forthcoming.

Product Details

• Paperback: 142 pages
• Publisher: MindLeaves; 2nd Revised edition (August 30, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 8890597704
• ISBN-13: 978-8890597701
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.3 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,346,794 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Chamed is not the registry office name of the author, yet it is not a pseudonym. She lives in Tuscany, she works mostly abroad, as a painter on canvas and porcelain. Some of her porcelain works are displayed in exhibitions in Italy, Sweden and Poland, France, Portugal and Brazil. "My Heart Stopped Beating" (MindLeaves, 2011) is her first novel. A second novel by her is forthcoming.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Heartbreaking story December 24, 2011

By Bengt Eriksson

Format:Paperback

This is a heart-breaking story about Chamad, a teenage girl who is born disabled, but thanks to a loving father she learns to talk as well as walk. As a teenager she meets a boy and falls in love and then, after years of hard struggling, the future looks bright and promising.
Then the disaster strikes, both her parents die in a traffic accident and she goes and lives with her uncle and aunt. Her aunt has once been the girlfriend of Chamad's fathers and is still in love with him. Now, when the aunt has a child of her own, she hates Chamad and makes her life a living hell.
What happens next is for you to find out by reading the book. I'm giving it five stars because it is a real page-turner and impossible to put down and I'm looking forward to the next novel by Chamad. Hopefully she will find a better translator.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars My Heart Stopped Beating December 24, 2011

By arianne

Format:Paperback

I enjoyed this book and I also enjoyed the writing style. This book was different of what I read normaly. I think that Chamed did a really good job and this book is really worth it.

Chamed has managed to translate the emotions without hiding anything from the horror she's been through.

5.0 out of 5 stars Antoinette May 10, 2012

By Antoinette

Format:Paperback

This was a first read giveaway book I received, thank you Chamed and Good Reads! It was a good book, but it was a very sad story since it is based on a true story. Yes, there are some areas where the dialog is off, or doesn't make sense but it is translated from another language. Even though the dialog may be a little hard to read at some times, you knew what was going on. However what this young woman and now a woman, you can't believe what she went through, it was a true hell. I can't believe how there is really hateful people that our out there, even really evil. But I am glad that she was raised with love and that she was able to enjoy the love of her parents while they were alive, so that she was able to have such a pure heart. She endured so much redicule and abuse that one would think she would have given up, even though at the end she believed she did, but I think she was still strong and was still fighting. I am glad that at the end she was able to escape and still have people in her life that truely loved and cared for her. People who were able to see how beautiful and pure she really is. I am glad she got to keep her first and only true love in her life, she was truley lucky to have someone to care and love her even through all she went through. Its a beautiful ending, like happily ever after, but that one year she went through hell, she deserves a better life, a happy life, where no one can tell her otherwise. A must read...