Explosive Paradise: From the Eyes of the Injured

This novel is a fictionalized true story of two sisters that unfolds through letters they wrote between 1977 to 1999. Both sisters sustain traumatic injuries from a near deadly accident that changes their lives forever. Breta Gale sustains traumatic brain injury with loss of her short-term memory while her older sister, Meta, suffers from multiple physical injuries. At first, the two sisters and their family lack insight into dealing with memory impairment and pain. Writing becomes a key avenue for their therapy. After being comatose, Breta awakens and struggles with living only in the present time. As she struggles to live in the world of now, her horse pulls her through her mental turmoil. Meanwhile, Meta struggles through her pain by writing, studying, and mentally escaping her tortured body. Pain and curiosity steer her on an alternative path away from her sheltered library, towards healthcare. In medical school, she finds love in unexpected places. Breta's mind struggles to knit itself back together as she toils away hours of each day labeling and organizing, while Meta struggles with pain that propels her to become a foreign medical student graduate. Two sisters, one driven by pain and curiosity and one driven by order and memory, fight to overcome their mutual trauma. Where will their battles take them?