In the latest episode of Beyond the Page, I sit down with author Eva Levina to discuss her two book series Death Is No Reason to Stop Living and the deeply personal experiences that inspired it.

Eva describes spending 25 years in a marriage that she says gradually diminished her sense of identity. After surviving cardiac arrest and waking from a coma, she eventually began looking at her life differently and recognizing patterns she hadn’t understood before.

Our conversation explores some of the subtle signs of emotional abuse Eva experienced, including gaslighting, criticism, manipulation and financial control. But the discussion goes beyond recognizing unhealthy relationships.

We talk about what happens afterward.

Eva shares the difficulty of rediscovering who she was, returning to interests like dancing and photography, becoming financially independent, working with therapists, and learning to direct toward herself the same care and attention she’d spent years giving someone else.

We also discuss the process of writing about such personal experiences. Eva describes writing the books as emotionally brutal at times, but publishing her story eventually became something very different: liberating.

Toward the end of our conversation, Eva sums up where that journey has taken her with a simple line:

“Life is beautiful when you allow yourself to live it.”

It’s a conversation about emotional abuse, but even more importantly, it’s about identity, resilience and finding a way forward.

Watch or listen to the full conversation with Eva Levina on Beyond the Page.