Memoir traces hard-won path to sobriety

FORMER Jan Juc business owner Suzie Browne has penned a memoir about her experiences with alcohol addiction, recovery and more than eight years of sobriety.

The Hole in the Soul has been seven years in the making and draws on Browne’s earlier years – including her time running Jan Juc’s Bird Rock Cafe – and the long process of rebuilding her life through a 12-step program.

Browne began writing after years of being encouraged to put her stories down on paper.

“I started writing and I never thought I would ever publish it. It was just like a hobby, something to do to kill the time, and I just kept going,” she said.

Revisiting the past proved both challenging and cathartic.

“[You’re] clearing yourself of a lot of the guilt and the shame that went with the addiction by writing about it,” Browne said.

“It’s cathartic because it’s almost like you’re forgiving yourself and you’re apologising in a way to those that you harmed – which the book does cover a lot.”

Some chapters required confronting painful memories.

“When I’d finished writing those tragic parts, I’d have to just go for a walk on the beach to get it out of my head, because it’s stuck, they’re sort of stuck and you go back there and you’re reliving them,” she said.

But the process also allowed her to revisit the joy and chaos of her earlier years.

“We had so much fun during those drinking years. I don’t deny any of that and I don’t wish any of that didn’t happen – all of that’s made me who I am today,” Browne said.

“I’m grateful for every experience I had, whether it was tragic or hilarious, it was just all meant to be. I think that it creates who we are as people.”

Written as a self-help memoir, Browne hopes The Hole in the Soul will support others, particularly women, navigating addiction or personal hardship.

“I think my book’s going to help a lot of people and give them some answers, as I found the answers in recovery, in sobriety,” she said.

With the new year approaching, Browne hopes readers will feel emboldened to make changes of their own.

“I think we can achieve anything we want if we believe in ourselves and love ourselves,” she said.

For more information, or to purchase The Hole in the Soul, head to linktr.ee/theholeinthesoul