This book tells us the story of a woman in South Africa who was raped and almost murdered. The first thing I saw from this book were the pictures of the writer’s injuries. After seeing that, I think there can be two possible reactions: Being shocked and not wanting to look at it, suppress the feeling of disgust and try to forget about it. Being shocked at the first moment but then wanting to know more about this story, how it could happen and what kind of person the writer is etc. My reaction was the second one. I must admit that I can’t recommend this book to everybody – just do the test described above and you know if it is a good book for you. If you can’t handle to look at these pictures you probably won’t handle the very descriptive parts of the book. Once started with reading the book it becomes very fascinating and you don’t want to stop reading anymore, just waiting for the next opportunity to read one more chapter, wanting to know what happens next. The chapters are written by different persons, all having to do with the case: Most of it by Alison herself of course, but also by her Mom, her father, her future husband, her life saviour, her surgeon, a police inspector, a psychologist and the friend she spent the evening with (before the crime had happened). The book is written in cooperation with a professional journalist, which makes it very readable. It’s like reading a story in a magazine, not like struggling with a heavy piece of literature. It is written in a modern language and not beating about the bush.- Sometimes it feels like reading a letter from a good old friend.
I don’t want to tell you too many details about the story, but I will give you just the main traces: Going home at night, parking her car near her flat, Alison is abducted by two men who drive her outside town where they rape her and try to kill her by stabbing in her stomach an slithering her throat. Despite of her life threatening wounds she manages to stand up and walk to the road where she is found by passers-by. You can not speak of a miracle because there was more than one miracle happening that enabled her to survive. After that, the story goes on with her time in hospital, the court case and her life further on. Today Alison is a famous author and gives motivation seminars.
Penguin Book - ISBN 0140280790)
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