Violation

The Story

Althea Auben is a struggling single mother, holding together the ragged edges of her life for the sake of her thirteen-year-old son. Thea still lives in the shadow of her past, still carries the scars from one terrible night that left her brutalized, comatose, and pregnant, and still cannot fully face the world--a world that destroyed her young womanhood so viciously, yet left her on her own to survive, function, and raise her child.When her son begins to question her about his father, Thea is forced to spin lies, trying to protect him from the truth of his conception. But soon he is no longer satisfied, and becomes angry enough to take off and seek his own answers, setting in motion Thea's harrowing journey into a dark past and a dangerous present. It is Thea's transforming love for her son that alone gives her the strength to confront what really happened and to deal with the nightmare of its consequences.In this unusual, powerful novel, Darian North's masterful exploration of the physical and emotional damage caused by violent crime is both riveting and unforgettable. No one who reads this novel will ever feel the same again about the precarious peace between men and women, and the hidden yet ever-present threat of its quick and devastating collapse.