“I want people to understand that even if you’ve grown up in this sort of difficult, traumatic experience or in this way that’s made an indelible imprint on you, that you can chart a different course and your life can look different and hopeful,” Cohan told me. “I really want the book to be a source of healing for people. People don’t have to have a black-and-white view of the person who’s hurt them and they have to then care for. That seems like a pretty important message right now, when we’re at a real reckoning point in the world.”