What do you think?
Rate this book
Broke
A memoir about downward mobility, disability and the power of hope.
Sam always knew he was starting life on the back foot. When his parents split, Sam, his mother and his brother had to learn to survive in a world not built for single-parent families. Add to that Sam's diagnosis with a form of dwarfism and the odds seemed stacked against them. As surgeons kept breaking and resetting Sam's legs in attempts to keep him walking, disability and poverty collided, and it took all the family's strength not to crumple in the impact.
With each change in circumstance - jobs gained and lost, relationships starting and ending, moving between city and country and from school to school - Sam tried to make sense of the adult decisions that kept shaking his world. Armed with hope, the support of friends and teachers, and the unwavering love of his mum, he began to claw his way to a brighter future.
In Broke, lawyer and disability advocate Sam Drummond weaves a poignant, stirring and deeply compassionate tale of life on the fringes. It's a story of broken families, broken bodies and a broken system that constantly lets vulnerable Australians down.
Sam always knew he was starting life on the back foot. When his parents split, Sam, his mother and his brother had to learn to survive in a world not built for single-parent families. Add to that Sam's diagnosis with a form of dwarfism and the odds seemed stacked against them. As surgeons kept breaking and resetting Sam's legs in attempts to keep him walking, disability and poverty collided, and it took all the family's strength not to crumple in the impact.
With each change in circumstance - jobs gained and lost, relationships starting and ending, moving between city and country and from school to school - Sam tried to make sense of the adult decisions that kept shaking his world. Armed with hope, the support of friends and teachers, and the unwavering love of his mum, he began to claw his way to a brighter future.
In Broke, lawyer and disability advocate Sam Drummond weaves a poignant, stirring and deeply compassionate tale of life on the fringes. It's a story of broken families, broken bodies and a broken system that constantly lets vulnerable Australians down.
288 pages, Paperback
First published June 27, 2023
6 people are currently reading
119 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 30, 2023
I read this in close to one sitting. It is really compelling though I would have loved to know how his mother fared after the last chapter.
December 17, 2023
We don’t talk enough about class, poverty and what compounded disadvantages do to people in Australia. This book is an invaluable addition to a small cannon of work that lays bare what most of our literature ignores or can only speak to at a distance.
January 19, 2026
Hard to read at times seeing the family and Sam struggle to get further ahead in life. Felt frustrated for them but also uplifted when the successes did occur. At times felt there were gaps in the story and would have liked more explanation. A great read overall.
Read
January 20, 2024- thanks to @affirmpress for my #gifted copy of this book
I hope I never cease to be amazed and profoundly moved by the courage, the talent and the grace of writers like Sam. Writing is beautiful and painful, and for some, it can even be healing ... but writing one's story and sharing it with the world takes guts —to say the least— and significantly more so when your voice is usually dismissed and buried amidst thousands of voices louder than yours. For this, I extend my gratitude and admiration to Sam and Affirm Press for bringing Broke into the world.
I basically —and unapologetically— devoured this book, switching between reading my physical copy and listening to the audiobook. Sam's voice —figurative and literally speaking— is equally captivating and heartwrenching. Undeniably, this type of narrative can only be achieved through an uncomfortable level of vulnerability for both the author and the reader. However, little can be achieved through art if we run away from learning and listening to voices that oblige us to wake up from our stupor, demanding to witness and sit with someone else's pain.
In his Memoir, Sam covers several critical topics, succinctly drawing from a lifelong experience of discrimination and dismissal. But this book is not only about disability, poverty, mobility limitations and discrimination; it is also a profound and heartfelt love letter to Sam's mother, who advocated and fought for her sons through life-changing hardship. Throughout my short —I wanted more!— but impactful experience with this book, I found myself fantasising about reading a Memoir about Sam's mum, especially one that picks up from where Broke ends. Wink, wink. Just saying.
In addition to the compassion, kindness and hope embedded in Sam's writing, there is an urgency for action and a demand for care. The current Australian health system —made by members of the society we are all part of and responsible for— is constantly letting down, dismissing and abusing vulnerable people. To change this, we need to listen and learn. And you can start to do so by reading this book.
I hope I never cease to be amazed and profoundly moved by the courage, the talent and the grace of writers like Sam. Writing is beautiful and painful, and for some, it can even be healing ... but writing one's story and sharing it with the world takes guts —to say the least— and significantly more so when your voice is usually dismissed and buried amidst thousands of voices louder than yours. For this, I extend my gratitude and admiration to Sam and Affirm Press for bringing Broke into the world.
I basically —and unapologetically— devoured this book, switching between reading my physical copy and listening to the audiobook. Sam's voice —figurative and literally speaking— is equally captivating and heartwrenching. Undeniably, this type of narrative can only be achieved through an uncomfortable level of vulnerability for both the author and the reader. However, little can be achieved through art if we run away from learning and listening to voices that oblige us to wake up from our stupor, demanding to witness and sit with someone else's pain.
In his Memoir, Sam covers several critical topics, succinctly drawing from a lifelong experience of discrimination and dismissal. But this book is not only about disability, poverty, mobility limitations and discrimination; it is also a profound and heartfelt love letter to Sam's mother, who advocated and fought for her sons through life-changing hardship. Throughout my short —I wanted more!— but impactful experience with this book, I found myself fantasising about reading a Memoir about Sam's mum, especially one that picks up from where Broke ends. Wink, wink. Just saying.
In addition to the compassion, kindness and hope embedded in Sam's writing, there is an urgency for action and a demand for care. The current Australian health system —made by members of the society we are all part of and responsible for— is constantly letting down, dismissing and abusing vulnerable people. To change this, we need to listen and learn. And you can start to do so by reading this book.
March 11, 2024
Sad funny heartwarming and gut-wrenching all at the same time. I grew up with one leg smaller and shorter than the other and experienced just the tiniest taunts of others by comparison. My parents taught me resilience and that “everyone has something it’s just that yours is on the outside “. Sam that you have come through poverty and disruption in your life to get to this point is a credit to you and your whole family. A must read
August 31, 2023
Loved this book. A love letter from Sam to his mum for a lifetime of sacrifice and advocacy for her two sons. A deft and delicate handling of the experience of growing up disabled in small town Australia. A beautiful read. Thanks Sam.
October 31, 2023
This was a really good book but I would love there to have been an epilogue so we learn of the futures of the authors family members and his friends. Perhaps there is another book in the works. I sincerely hope life has been kind to them all.
October 9, 2023
really good book thanks
January 18, 2024
A good audible listen!!! A sad story but a important one
December 22, 2025
The title of this book refers to the financial, as Sam grew up in poverty in 1990s Australia; the physical, as Sam was born with a form of dwarfism and required numerous surgeries during his childhood; and the emotional/psychological, with Sam's grandfather suffering PTSD after serving in the war and this trauma passing down through the generations.
His memoir focuses on his childhood through to his early years at uni, when his grandfather passed away. There's a big focus on how his mother coped as a single mother, though it was refreshing to read that her bad decisions with men were mostly in persisting with partners who were kind and generous with her two boys even though she didn't really love them (compared with the often violent or abusive boyfriends that children often encounter in poor socio-economic families). Sam was also lucky to develop amazing, supportive friendships in primary school that carried him through to adulthood. But nothing could detract from how hard life is when you're extremely poor and physically disabled. An interesting, though sad at times, read.
His memoir focuses on his childhood through to his early years at uni, when his grandfather passed away. There's a big focus on how his mother coped as a single mother, though it was refreshing to read that her bad decisions with men were mostly in persisting with partners who were kind and generous with her two boys even though she didn't really love them (compared with the often violent or abusive boyfriends that children often encounter in poor socio-economic families). Sam was also lucky to develop amazing, supportive friendships in primary school that carried him through to adulthood. But nothing could detract from how hard life is when you're extremely poor and physically disabled. An interesting, though sad at times, read.
April 14, 2025
I picked this up just by the way, and also ended up finishing it in one sitting. This memoir says a lot about the families left behind in the Australian social and welfare system, but also the sacrifices that parents make for their children so that they can have it better than they did. I hope Sam's mum is doing okay and no matter what people say about the Australian Education System, it is still a leg up in society if you are willing to give it a go. Recommended.
July 11, 2024
Broke is a memoir with all the feels written by Sam Drummond. Drummond tells of being broken in more ways than one, raised by a single mother who struggles to keep her family afloat and is prone to bad decision making. This resulted in an unstable childhood to say the least. Sam’s grandpa was a war veteran, battling his own demons, suffering from PTSD, his grandpa passed down the trauma to his mother and then to him.
If that is not enough, Sam was born with dwarfism and must navigate life associated with comedic value during that time, thanks to Austin Powers and Mini Me. He describes many prickly social situations like being excited to land his first job hosting parties, only to find out he is the hired entertainment.
When Sam was much too young to understand he had to endure several horrendous medical procedures that broke and reset his legs to give a chance of walking. This left an everlasting scar, both emotionally and physically. Alas through sheer will and determination, Sam broke free from the poverty cycle and became a lawyer.
The reason why this book is missing a star is because I was hoping to see Sam’s character develop a little more. People’s cruel remarks about dwarfism hurt him as a child and continues to hurt him as an adult. Similar could be said about his apathy towards life. Perhaps that is what true struggles are, no trumpets, no fanfare, no saviours. And if that is the case, I owe this book a star.
Broke is a story about a broken body, a broken home and a broken bank. It is a story about love, when love is all you have.
If that is not enough, Sam was born with dwarfism and must navigate life associated with comedic value during that time, thanks to Austin Powers and Mini Me. He describes many prickly social situations like being excited to land his first job hosting parties, only to find out he is the hired entertainment.
When Sam was much too young to understand he had to endure several horrendous medical procedures that broke and reset his legs to give a chance of walking. This left an everlasting scar, both emotionally and physically. Alas through sheer will and determination, Sam broke free from the poverty cycle and became a lawyer.
The reason why this book is missing a star is because I was hoping to see Sam’s character develop a little more. People’s cruel remarks about dwarfism hurt him as a child and continues to hurt him as an adult. Similar could be said about his apathy towards life. Perhaps that is what true struggles are, no trumpets, no fanfare, no saviours. And if that is the case, I owe this book a star.
Broke is a story about a broken body, a broken home and a broken bank. It is a story about love, when love is all you have.
July 16, 2023
I know Sam and his partner Jo and I’m glad he wrote this book. I hope that decision makers read it and it leads to better conditions for people with disabilities and single parents.
October 12, 2023
Makes me realise how some people survive with a disability.
November 13, 2023
A beautiful story. I became so immersed in Sam’s life that I also read it in one day.
October 11, 2024
Easy read, reminder to be grateful
November 1, 2024
Nominating Sam Drummond for Nicest Guy Ever. Despite many awful things happening, this book is so wholesome and so full of love.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews