The reader will be drawn irresistibly into the world of the author who presents a catalogue of abuse and cruelty suffered by herself as an innocent child, first at the hands of her alcoholic father, then by nuns, and later by a heartless husband who raped and beat her. This is compulsive reading
This book about extreme cruelty by a daddy for his children and his loving wife is written simply and from the heart, much of it from the point of view of the little girl Emelia who suffered unimaginable torture at the hands of her abusive, alcoholic father. "I wrote this book simply, like a little girl but with the heart of a woman," the author says. "You will find no words that you can't pronounce or understand. What you will find is the open heart of a little girl, then of the woman she became." The author goes on to give a vivid and heartfelt account of the abuse the same little girl suffered at the hands of nuns, supposedly the agents of God's love and mercy, behind the closed doors of a convent; thereafter she reveals how she found herself in a life-threatening situation, brought about by her own hand at fifteen, as a result of an unfeeling husband who raped and beat her. The picture she paints is made all the more poignant by the loss of the one true love whose memory will never die, by the loss of a devoted brother who couldn't stay because God wanted him more, and by the unconditional love of a mother prepared to sacrifice anything for her children. The book shows how the shadow of a father's cruelty can be cast over the whole life of a child--a child who, in this instance, never failed to turn the other cheek, or return love for cruelty and abuse, who manifested, in the end, the overriding power and strength of Christ who advocated love above all things. The book is a protest against domestic violence and institutionalized cruelty, and will hopefully stand as a beacon and warning against the violations suffered by so many Emelias whose heartfelt cries go unheard behind the closed or locked doors of our apparently respectable western civilization.
