“There’s a little black box, yeah, somewhere in the ocean, holding all the truth about us. It’s a little black box, a record of emotion, everything that ever was.”

These are lyrics from Stan Walker’s first single Black Box – number one here in Aotearoa and number two across the ditch – that was released on 22 November 2009, the night he was named the winner of the seventh season of Australian Idol in a spectacular ceremony on the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House.

The words weren’t penned by Stan, who turns 30 this month, but they’re an appropriate introduction to the Kiwi singer and movie star’s startlingly honest and emotional autobiography, written with the help of Margie Thomson, who has previously aided Sir John Kirwan and Ray Columbus with their memoirs.

However, perhaps the most appropriate lyric from that debut hit is the line, ‘You can’t stop a true survivor.’ because Impossible: My Story is a remarkable, improbable tale of a young Māori man (Tūhoe and Ngāti Tūwharetoa) rising to greatness and finding his purpose after surviving horrific childhood abuse and countless other tragic situations.

In my 17 years in magazine journalism, I’ve interviewed Melbourne-born, Bay of Plenty-raised Stan at least a dozen times, with the Bigger singer and Hunt for the Wilderpeople actor often hinting at or glossing over his troubled background but never has he been so candid as in this book which is, at times, a harrowing read. I flinched as he recalled trying to kill himself with a kitchen knife as he was forced to wash the dishes at age three. Then there are the brutal beatings at the hands of his father with household implements like an iron, a vacuum cleaner and a set of golf clubs.

But most confronting is Stan’s account of being raped by an older cousin almost every day for nine months at the age of eight. It’s a raw and devastating chapter, yet the former X Factor NZ judge’s frank, likeable turn of phrase kept me turning those pages.

It’s clear the writing process was cathartic for Stan who recently told Woman’s Day, ‘I have such vivid memories from when I was a kid, but it’s only now, as an adult, that I’ve been able to go back, unpack and comprehend what happened to me. Back then, we never talked about our feelings.

‘I’m always going to be explosive with what I do, but now I understand my triggers and my thought process. I know how to manage and talk about it before I blow up. Especially with men, it’s the talking that’s the problem.’

Stan’s memories may be unpleasant but despite all the hurdles and heartache on his road to stardom, including the cancer diagnosis that resulted in him having his stomach cut out, it’s an ultimately rewarding read, with the singer finding salvation in his faith and, more interestingly, te ao Māori.

He’s using his voice to uplift and inspire his people. No matter how big a fan you may be of his music or movies, you can’t help but like Stan more with every chapter.

Reviewed by Sebastian van der Zwan