In Violence to Victory, each story starts like a fairy tale — of life in the beautiful Australian bush — and turns into a nightmare. Ten women describe their unique experiences of domestic and family violence in rural, regional and remote Australia, in the silent spaces where everyone knows your business and yet doesn't want to get involved. The vastness of the land and the lack of local services became another tool in the perpetrator's arsenal, alongside physical, verbal and sexual abuse, coercion, and emotional and financial abuse.

Each woman reached a turning point. She realised she mattered, and found the determination to escape and rebuild her life. Their stories will inspire you, and alert you to the red flags that are so often dismissed — by victims, and by those who support them.

Violence to Victory is not just about surviving violence. It is about reclaiming identity, rediscovering joy, and rebuilding a future once thought unreachable. It does not offer simple answers — it offers the truth, revealing the complexity of loving, leaving, healing and beginning again.

These ten brave, resilient, brilliant women have written not only of what they endured, but of what they learned along the way, the tools, insight and hope that helped them rebuild. Contributing authors publish anonymously for their safety, but each story is rich and unique. Together, their voices encourage and empower other survivors in rural, regional and remote communities to know that leaving is possible, help exists, and a new chapter is within reach.

Each author took part in Broken to Brilliant's 12-month narrative-therapy Author Program, founded and run by fellow survivors. The program supports victim-survivors to reflect on their experiences, reclaim their voice, and transform their pain into wisdom for others.

Violence to Victory completes the Broken to Brilliant book series: Broken to Brilliant (2016), Terror to Triumph (2018), Shattered to Shining (2019), Coerced to Courageous (2023), and now Violence to Victory. It also completes the BRAVE series, a concept created by Broken to Brilliant Co-Founder Andrea, with a letter from each book title used to spell BRAVE across the spines of the five books. The BRAVE series represents a decade of survivor voices, lived-experience wisdom and practical hope — written from one survivor to another.