The Past Still Breathes is a powerful memoir of adoption, silence, mental illness, institutional power and female reinvention. Spanning New Zealand, Australia, Dubai, New York, India and beyond, Kirstyn Lewis traces the hidden cost of being taken from her birth mother, and the long, courageous search for truth and belonging.

Written with emotional intelligence and cinematic clarity, this is a story for women who have carried secrets silence — and for mental health practitioners interested in the lived experience behind diagnosis, trauma, resilience and recovery.  The Past Still Breathes is a fierce testament to survival, voice and the healing power of finally telling the truth. This bold and deeply personal memoir draws on her travels over cultures, continents and decades and gives a voice to many of the global conversations shaping women’s lives today making it widely resonant for mature and well travelled readers.

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