On a beautiful autumn morning, Jennifer Barr, a young mother of two, was raped. Even more than the physical, the psychological trauma of that assault was to devastate her for many months. WITHIN A DARK WOOD is Jennifer Barr’s story—a moving, deeply personal and dramatic recreation of the assault and the desperate struggle for emotional survival she went through in response to the ordeal.
A first-person story, WITHIN A DARK WOOD is a universal story. Jennifer Barr’s story of violence and crime, is how one woman survived its devastating effects. It is also an account of the events leading up to the arrest and trial of the assailant. And it is the story of an ordinary woman who was a victim of violence and was able to grow from it. Jennifer Barr's testimony is a source of insight and inspiration to every woman, and man, and invaluable source of information to anyone who seeks to understand this frighteningly frequent crime.
A beautifully presented story, WITHIN A DARK WOOD is both an inner and an outer journal: a chronicle of the interior life of a woman working her way toward greater strength and self-knowledge and the story of that year in her life—of the police work, the people who helped her and of the legal system. Originally published in 1979, the book is surprising, and unfortunately, up to date.