A Fractured Child

'I am six.We are sitting on the piano bench. Daddy's wearing his undershorts.That's all. I'm wearing my white underpants.That's all. It doesn't feel like we're going to make beautiful music a' Catherine McCall's father was a high-profile doctor, her mother regularly hosted bridge parties. Growing up in their beautiful, historic home, Cathy appeared to have everything a girl could want. No one, not the neighbours, the nuns at school or her beloved grandmother, could have guessed that there was a torture chamber in the basement of 763 Montgomery Place, or that Cathy was being raped repeatedly by her father. By the age of eighteen, Cathy didn't know either: she had repressed every memory of abuse. Twenty years later, looking after her now ailing parents, Cathy's memories begin to return. In this starkly authentic and utterly immediate memoir, Cathy describes both how she uncovered the horrific secrets she'd kept so well throughout her childhood and her inspirational journey to overcome them.