What Is Sexual Abuse?

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I recently spoke with Katherine A. Sherbrooke, author of the novel This Much is True, which explores the impact of remaining silent about past sexual assault on our current relationships.

Lynne: Your new novel, This Much is True, tackles a complicated issue in close relationships, primarily the lingering effects of sexual assault on a woman and her family. One of the themes you explore is the burden of silence over the years. Can you say more about that?

Katherine: The book places my main character, Veronica, who is in her 50s, in an impossible situation, when she shockingly realizes that the father of her daughter’s fiancé is the person who assaulted her in high school. Like many women, she chose at the time not to tell a soul—she even removed herself from the whole situation by dropping out of school and moving away.

But in the present, she can no longer avoid what once happened to her. She must either quietly accept her daughter's father-in-law into her family or speak up and possibly destroy her relationship with her daughter.

I was really interested in putting a fine point on the calculation every survivor must make, between the enormous cost of coming forward versus the heavy burden of staying silent.

L: I imagine your novel will resonate with far too many women given........

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