Book of the Silenced: An Award-Winning Memoir
In the News
Interviews, appearances, awards and events, newest first.
Coming to the screen
Book of the Silenced is becoming a documentary: Forbidden Prayers
The true story behind the book is now being made into a documentary, with filming beginning this December. Follow the film and its journey to the screen.
Visit ForbiddenPrayers.com
Sharing My Story Live on Sunny TV
I joined Sunny TV live on Sunny St. Johns in the Morning to talk about Book of the Silenced. Watch my interview [...]
Read more
Book of the Silenced Is a 2026 Best Book Awards Finalist
Book of the Silenced by Dr. Gordana Smith has been honored as a Finalist in the Multicultural Nonfiction category of the 2026 [...]
Read more
From Silenced to Bestseller: My Conversation at La Casa Studios
Every voice deserves to be heard.
Read moreAbout the Author
I didn’t start out here. I started out hurt—physically, emotionally and spiritually—in every raw, messy way you can’t fit on a clean business card.
I survived the war in Bosnia. My background is in linguistics, and after the war I worked as an interpreter for the American peacekeeping forces, which taught me how easily the most important human truths get lost in translation. I never dreamt I would have to wage another war, in a different language and on a different continent.
Years later, as a physician practicing in St. Augustine, Florida, I sat beside a hospital bed and watched standard, box-checking protocols fail my teenage son after what should have been a routine sports injury.
If you have ever held a loved one’s hand in a cold hospital room, felt your heart hammer in your chest and prayed for someone to finally listen, you know that feeling. With all the hope, desperation and vigilance only a parent understands, I fought for my son while everything I thought was safe came apart.
Going through that fire deepened my life of service, turned a frightened mother into an advocate who would not stop asking questions, and tested my faith as nothing else ever had. It is the reason I wrote Book of the Silenced.
About the Book
When a system built to heal tells a mother to just wait and see, that waiting can tear a child’s life apart in slow motion.
Book of the Silenced is my true, firsthand account as a physician who deeply trusted modern medicine until it failed my only son. It brings rigorous science and a mother’s love together, tracing how a series of unexpected physical and environmental events broke down the body’s natural defenses and set off a complex health crisis.
More than a clinical account, this medical memoir captures the human reality of a misdiagnosis: the quiet strain on a marriage tested to its limit, the weight of invisible battles, and the stubborn courage it takes to trust your own intuition when the rest of the world tells you to be quiet.
Book of the Silenced: Official Trailer
Praise
Awards and Recognition
Receiving the Gold Medal at the 2026 FAPA President’s Book Awards
- Gold Medal2026 President’s Book Awards, Florida Authors & Publishers Association (FAPA)
- GoldMom’s Choice Awards
- Silver Medal2026 Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards, Non-Fiction – Health – Medical
- Silver Medal2026 Global Ebook Awards, Autobiography & Memoir
- FinalistBest Non-Fiction, 2026 Hollywood Book Awards
- FinalistMulticultural Nonfiction, 23rd Annual 2026 Best Book Awards, American Book Fest
- Finalist20th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards
- RecommendedKirkus Reviews
- SelectIndie Author Project, featured in public library collections across the U.S. and Canada
- Five StarsReaders’ Favorite
- BestsellerAmazon
Who Reads This Book
Families and caregivers will find a roadmap for trusting themselves, standing up for the people they love, and holding on to hope when hospital protocols fall short.
Readers of faith, and those whose faith has been shaken, will find an honest testimony of prayer tested in the darkest hours and hope that refused to let go.
Couples will see what a long medical crisis asks of a marriage, and what it takes to keep standing side by side.
Military families will recognize the courage it takes to fight a battle no uniform prepares you for.
Immigrants and survivors of war will find a woman who rebuilt her life in a new language, only to fight another war on a different continent.
Anyone who has ever been misdiagnosed, overmedicated or not believed will find their own experience on these pages, and the strength to speak up.
Clinicians and care providers will find an invitation to look beyond automated checklists, listen closely to patient histories and bring humanity back to care.
Journalists and filmmakers will find a high-stakes true story built on primary documentation, medical records and human survival.
For readers who loved When Breath Becomes Air, Educated and Theo of Golden.
From the Pages to the Practice
The same refusal to stop asking questions that carried me through my son’s ordeal is the foundation of my practice at Phoenix Rises Acupuncture in St. Augustine, Florida. If you or someone you love is facing a complex health challenge, chronic pain or a condition no one has been able to explain, our clinic offers whole-person, root-cause care with the time and close listening every patient deserves.
Phoenix Rises Acupuncture was voted Best of St. Augustine nine consecutive years, from 2017 to 2025, and named a 2026 finalist. The clinic also won Best of St. Augustine for Pain Management in 2024 and Best of Jacksonville for Acupuncture in 2021.
(904) 238-1000Speaking and Media
Dr. Gordana Smith, DAOM, is a compelling guest and speaker on television, radio and podcasts, in newspaper features and at live events. She speaks openly about the human reality of medical misdiagnosis, patient rights, a mother’s intuition and navigating complex chronic illness, with grounded perspectives on healthcare advocacy and institutional reform.
Speaking at FAPACon 2026, the Florida Authors & Publishers Association conference
Her presentation topics include Love with a Spine: Patient Advocacy in Institutional Healthcare; Beyond the Checklist: Restoring Humanity to Clinical Care; and Finding Answers When Standard Medicine Runs Out: Root-Cause Perspectives on Complex Illness.
Dr. Smith is available for media interviews, podcast features, guest lectures, panel discussions and keynotes for patient advocacy groups, medical institutions and community organizations.
Get Your Copy
Book of the Silenced is available in hardcover, paperback and Kindle on Amazon, and in print at Barnes & Noble. Signed copies can be picked up at Phoenix Rises Acupuncture in St. Augustine, FL, or shipped directly from our office.