Twilight children - Torey L. Hayden

From the author of the Sunday Times bestseller `One Child', comes a startling and poignant memoir of three people's victimisation and abuse - and their heartbreaking but ultimately successful steps to recovery, with the help of Torey Hayden, an educational psychologist.

In `Twilight Children', Hayden tells three gripping stories. At the centre of the book is the story of Cassandra, a nine-year old girl who was kidnapped and abused by her father for two years and, by the time Hayden starts working with her, is ready to lash out at anyone who tries to befriend her. Running parallel to Cassandra's story is that of four-year-old Drake who won't speak to anyone except his mother. The third narrative is about Gerda, an elderly women who, after suffering a stroke, refuses to free herself from her self-imposed silence and crippling depression.

Told with compassion, sensitivity, and, believe it or not, humour, `Twilight Children' is the story of one woman's fierce determination, the struggles of three people, and their amazing road to recovery.

Torey Hayden is an educationalist whose work centres around elective mutes and especially children who won't speak due to a trauma in their lives.