India, March 19 -- Jenny Evans was 19 when life briefly seemed to be opening up. She had just appeared in a Welsh cult film Twin Town. The atmosphere around the production was loose and joyful. Cast and crew had travelled down to Swansea from London simply to be part of the energy. Then, suddenly, everything collapsed. After a night out in London, she was sexually assaulted by a well-known man.

Jenny Evans's Don't Let It Break You, Honey, which is on the longlist of this year's Women's Prize for Nonfiction, begins with that violent experience as a young actor. Nearly three decades later, Evans returns to that moment in her memoir that in turn asks a set of larger questions: What happens when a private experience becomes public property? ...