Book Spotlight: My Heart Stopped Beating by Chamed

Fourteen year old Italian girl, Chamed, is a living miracle after fighting illness since birth to live a normal life. Now fourteen years old, she feels a thrill of freedom when she convinces her parents to let her stay home alone while they go on holiday. She soon regrets that decision when she receives a call from her aunt Patrizia that the worst has happened: her parents have died in a car accident.

Things only get worse for Chamed as she mourns the deaths of her parents and suffers under the care of her aunt and uncle. Her aunt repeatedly abuses her and convinces others that she is an evil child. When Chamed’s best friend’s father sexually harasses her, the blame is placed on Chamed. Deeply depressed, she attempts suicide, only to find herself waking up in a mental hospital. Her nightmare is only beginning as she is subjected to electroshock therapy against her will – and worse from the nurses and doctors.

Finally she finds hope again in Dr. Franco, but will he be enough to save her from this living nightmare?

Read an Excerpt!


“Why am I here? I am in a mental hospital! Dad, would you have thought it? Help me.”

I dragged my body out of that mortal icehouse.

With great effort I started walking, but my energies abandoned me and I ensconced myself on the ground.

Don’t remember where, but I was out, in the garden.

A man approached me, staring at me and crying. In his eyes I could see his soul shining.

He said: “You fell from the sky. And men have cut your wings!”
Weeping, I replied: “I’m afraid! Tell me why I’m here. How do I go?! Can you help me?”

“Angels are not afraid.” And he went away.




Praise for My Heart Stopped Beating!

“A strong, direct, fascinating story: it strikes and leaves its mark.”
 --Edmondo Rho, special correspondent for Panorama

“No person who reads this book could fail to be profoundly moved to reflect first of all on the very serious danger to innocent people of institutions which fail to maintain proper oversight against abuses to patients in mental health institutions. Secondly it shows how justice can fail to be served in modern society, where adequate protection for the interests of minor surviving orphans may be lacking or nonexistent.
[…]
Finally no reader can read this without great inspiration to the courage of the human spirit and the power of human love to defeat evil."

--Ed Carl, Editor

“Full of emotion!”

--Aurora Magnin-Roncada, Translator of the French edition

“A deeply moving story, incredible in its lucidity.”


--Carlo Castelli, writer and editor, author of Nervi d’acciaio

Chamed is not the registry office name of the author, yet it is not a pseudonym. She lives in Tuscany, she works mostly abroad, as a painter on canvas and porcelain. Some of her porcelain works are displayed in exhibitions in Italy, Sweden and Poland, France, Portugal and Brazil. My Heart Stopped Beating: A True Story, Teen Survivor Memories of Horror Mad Houses in Italy is her first novel. A second novel by her is forthcoming.