MY PIECE OF SKY
stories of child sexual abuse
"A wrenching, monumental work chronicling child sexual abuse... why read about such unspeakable acts? Because, in the words of Maya Angelou, whose epigraph begins the book: 'There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.'"
– O The Oprah Magazine, May 2014
My Piece of Sky: Stories of Child Sexual Abuse is a personal journey for photojournalist, Mariella Furrer, which began over 30 years ago, when she was molested by a stranger. My Piece of Sky is the result of a ten-year project documenting stories of child sexual abuse with a camera and a sound recorder.
The book presents over 600 pages of photographs, interviews, artwork, journals and poetry that together deliver an unprecedented multi-sensory examination of child sexual abuse: how it impacts on the survivors and their families, the effect on child services professionals, police, prosecutors, and the community at large, and an insight into the perpetrators and their own personal history, among other stories.
My Piece of Sky is self-published, and although it focuses on South Africa as a case study, child sexual abuse is a global issue and this book is relevant internationally.
MY PIECE OF SKY
"My Piece of Sky is an astounding work of transforming evidence. Calling My Piece of Sky a book is too limiting. The raw narrative of the survivors; the power and evocative force of their drawings; the haunting photographs ... all combine to create a multi-sensorial
experience that in the end allows a view of sexual abuse that is unparalleled ..."
- Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D. Senior Fellow, The Child Trauma Academy, Houston, Texas