Dealing with Sexual Assault in South Africa

Author J.H. Morgan talks about dealing with sexual assault in South Africa in her new book The Long Road Home.

I was born and grew up in South Africa but have spent my adult life in the Kingdom of eSwatini, (Swaziland). Southern Africa has had the highest sexual assault rate in the world for many years and at the moment, in South Africa at least, things are getting truly out of hand.

I have yet to meet a woman in South Africa who hasn’t been affected personally by sexual violence.

One of the things I’ve realized is that people who haven’t lived through it can’t begin to comprehend the depth of emotional and psychological damage sexual assault has on a person. There is no perfect recovery, and no matter how strong the person is, no matter the support system, the counselling, the life they manage to build after an assault, the victim is forever changed on every fundamental level.

Regardless of age, it’s an innocence that’s taken away and can never be recovered. I find so often in books and media that the after-effects are smoothed over so people don’t have to deal with the brutal reality of life after sexual assault.

One of the main messages I needed to get across in The Long Road Home was that recovery is hard. Living life after assault is messy and dark and sometimes downright awful. I wanted people to understand what these women live through and how it affects every aspect of their life.

But more than that, and so much more important than that, I needed to show that no matter what you go through, no matter how damages you think you are, and despite the fact that you can never be the same person you were before, you can recover.

You can find happiness, you can find peace with the new version of yourself.

Overcoming a trauma like that is by far the hardest thing you will ever do, but living life the best you can and finding happiness is the best revenge you can ever have.

About the Author

Married to her best friend, journalist J. H. Morgan has three children under the age of seven and considers parenting to be the greatest adventure of her life.

She lives in the tiny African kingdom of Swaziland, where she works full-time and writes in the middle of the night. After reading every book she owned or could borrow, she began writing her own stories.

Morgan’s extraordinary life experiences and those of the people closest to her inspire her writing and give her valuable insight into the painful world of addiction. She completely understands the need to start life anew and the consequences such a decision triggers.

Connect with JH on Facebook | Twitter | Bookbub | Amazon | Goodreads

About the Book

The Long Road Home by J H Morgan
Genre: Romantic Suspense, Thriller

Synopsis

Emily Winter has spent more than half her life hiding from her past and the demons that still reside in it. She has tried to hide her pain with booze and mindless sex, never letting anyone close.

When her social worker and the closest thing to a friend she’s ever had calls Emily for help, Emily knows she can’t say no. Paige’s daughter Casey had been kidnapped and held for days in a foreign land. Paige knows the only person who could understand what Casey is going through would be Emily.

Going back to the town she hated, Emily is confronted with her past in more ways than one. Besides trying to help Casey work through her trauma, Emily discovers someone remembers more about her past than anyone else in town, and that someone is eager to pick up where they left off.’In order for Emily to survive, she will have to confront her own demons, the ones in her mind and the real ones waiting to finish the job they started years before.

“Nothing less than a masterclass in the sculpting of a raw, emotional and thoroughly compelling work of fiction.” The Scotsman

“A book that takes you on an epic, emotional journey of brilliance.” Yorkshire Post

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