A book by Izamara Peres

Il coraggio di essere fragile

La donna che ero destinata a essere

From Brazil to Switzerland, from childhood to motherhood: a story about the need to belong and the time it takes to listen to your own wishes again.

Discover the book

For years, I called never stopping strength.

Adapting quickly helped me find my place in a new country and, later, navigate major changes. Over time, I became so used to responding to other people’s expectations that I asked myself less and less how I was doing.

I wrote this book to return to those transitions. In telling them, I recognised how much space I had given to the part of me that could endure, and how difficult it was to acknowledge exhaustion or ask for support.

Vulnerability began to mean something different when I allowed myself to listen to it. I could attend to my responsibilities while also recognising that I needed help or that something had to change.

The story you will find in these pages.

The story follows a girl who leaves Brazil and looks for her place in Switzerland. In the years that follow, the desire to build a family intertwines with the struggle to preserve her independence. Another move means learning a new language and starting again somewhere without familiar points of reference.

Motherhood plays an important part: love for her children coexists with the wish to continue recognising herself as a woman. The book also describes how difficult asking for help can become when others see you as capable of handling everything. Through these moments, it follows the attempt to recover a voice in decisions about one’s own life.

The book is based on real experiences and told in fictionalised form. Names, places and some events have been changed or reimagined to protect those involved and shape the story. The author’s emotions and inner experience remain at its heart.

Who I had in mind as I wrote.

I thought especially of women whom others see as capable of everything, while they struggle to find time and words for themselves. Women reconsidering their place in a relationship, at work or within a family, who want to understand what to bring into the next phase.

You might recognise yourself in a moment, or encounter a story far removed from your own. Sometimes that distance is precisely what leaves open a question about a role, a choice or a request you have postponed.

Space to pause after reading, too.

In the final part, the story makes room for reflections and writing prompts on values, beliefs and gratitude, alongside moments devoted to the body, movement and silence. Spiritual exploration belongs to the personal journey described in the book.

A seven-day mini-programme invites you to give some attention to your everyday life. You can choose a question to sit with and the time to give it, following what the reading brings up for you.

The suggestions are invitations to personal reflection and do not replace professional support when it is needed.