Impact

For readers of The Glass Castle, Half Alive, and Wild, an inspiring, intimate memoir about family, loss, and finding one’s way, that shimmers with truth and heart on every page.



On a sunny spring morning, Jane Ann McLachlan was driving her daughter, newly home from university, on a routine errand. Their affectionate banter was suddenly broken when a jeep barreled into their car. The impact trapped McLachlan in the car with multiple injuries, and resulted in severe post-traumatic stress syndrome.

McLachlan takes us on a deeply personal and emotional journey through PTSD. She is forced to surrender her illusion of control and re-evaluate what it is that gives a life value. In telling her story, she captures with searing candor and moments of wry humor the impact of PTSD on its victims and their families, and shines a light on the unacknowledged truth that PTSD is not something that only happens to war veterans or victims of years of abuse, but something that can happen to anyone.

Impact is the story of how a life can be shattered in the blink of an eye, and of how to begin again.