Emily Watson

In the Torrent Emily Watson

Elizabeth wakes up, face down, in the ruins of her life. At 17, all she wants is to be a girl, like every other girl. Elizabeth wants one day without seizures. She wants to go to school and not wake up on the floor in her Chemistry class. Elizabeth longs for a day without frightened stares and lost moments. After years of seizures and failed medication, Elizabeth undergoes epilepsy surgery. When she wakes from surgery, she cannot speak. Elizabeth has a brain injury. Her injury explodes like a bomb in the family. Unarmed and disorientated, Elizabeth and her family are thrown into a battle fought by the wounded. They must learn to navigate the turmoil, chaos, and heartbreak of this new reality. Each day takes her family a little farther from the girl they used to know. She looks the same, but she isn't the same. Dreams begin to collect dust. Elizabeth struggles to stand on her own in a confusing, hostile world - a world that no longer holds a place for her. She works hard to find her way back to herself, as her parents are forced for another gut-wrenching decision. Elizabeth's fate lies in the balance. This is the powerfully raw and brutally honest portrait of a girl and her family riding out the storms of epilepsy and brain injury