Essentially

What if you have the chance to live three lives? Which one would you choose An answer to these thought-provoking questions is at the heart of the intriguing memoir, Essentially: Being Me in a Becoming World. It emerged as a rebirth from the ashes of a near-tragedy and life-defining experience of a single mother as she breaks the barrier of stigma and silence. In the book, the author craftily weaves her intensely personal journey and life-changing experiences as she grapples to find meaning and purpose in a trilogy of lives conflictedly interwoven in one destiny through first choices, second chances and everything in-between. Through the lenses of her personal experiences, she explores themes such as susceptibility, fighting addiction, and aloneness. The book is an open invitation to introspection, self-conversations and self-discovery through the turbulent storms and uncharted waters of the inevitability of change. I've learnt that we can only find our authentic selves in vulnerability and only when we find ourselves can we truly find and empower others.

Pauline Aweto holds a PhD from the Pontifical Salesian University, Rome, Italy. She has written extensively and contributed to research and publications on gender, including 'North African Feminism in the Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women: Global Women's Issues and Knowledge'. She is also the author of the books: The Sound of Silence, Wartime Rape: African Values at Crossroads, and The Changing Landscape of Christianity in Africa. She is actively involved in the socio-cultural integration of trafficked women in Italy. She was an invited lecturer to the Third University of Rome, Romatre, and was for four years a permanent member of the European Project: Equity and Difference across and within European Countries, Training for a Culture of Difference. She was a Consultant with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) within the Programme of the Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration of the Victims of Human Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation. Currently, she is a Senior Lecturer and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). She lives in London and has two sons, Chris, and Ken, and two granddaughters, Phoenix, and Aurora.