CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE – A DEFINING ISSUE OF OUR TIME – 3 WORKS:

With the increasing focus on the moral, and practical, imperative of expanding full recognition and implementation of basic human rights to all members of society, including children, child sexual abuse has become one of the defining issues of our time. The degree to which society is taking this imperative seriously with respect to children can be seen as having, for a litmus test, the degree to which child sexual abuse is taken seriously as an issue of urgent importance deserving of society’s concerted focus in terms of material resources and attention.

In no aspect is this litmus test more exacting than with respect to intra-family child sexual abuse, a central subject of the three works – a novella and two novels – described below. Taken together, these works of fiction, based in many respects on my personal experience of having been sexually abused as a child, and, as well, on my decades-long journey of healing as an adult, provide an intimate introduction to the horror of child sexual abuse, the family and societal dynamics that enable it, and the challenges faced by adult survivors.

It is my sincere hope that, in these and other respects, you will find these works, individually and in combination, deserving of your attention, your consideration, and your reading time.

John Brooks 

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PRELUDES: A STORY OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE FROM A CHILD’S PERSPECTIVE IN A MIDDLE-CLASS AMERICAN FAMILY – ORIGINAL NOVELLA-LENGTH VERSION

Preludes: A Story of Child Sexual Abuse from a Child’s Perspective in a Middle Class American Family is my autobiographical novella illuminating the horrors of child sexual abuse from a child’s perspective as it chronicles the experiences of a nine-year-old boy struggling to survive sexual abuse by his father in a middle-class American family in the 1960s. The story also explores some of the family- and society-level dynamics that can enable such abuse.

Download Preludes for free at:
– Amazon’s Kindle Store
(This is the link for the US Kindle Store.
For another Kindle Store, please do a search for “John Brooks” or “Preludes” on that store’s website.
Please note: other (non-US) Kindle stores may not price this novella-length version of Preludes as free.)

– . . . and at other ebook stores. 

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FOR A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING, ADDED FOCUS ON THE PATH TO HEALING, AND EXPLORATION OF POSSIBLE SOCIETAL-LEVEL SOLUTIONS:
A REVISED, NOVEL-LENGTH VERSION OF PRELUDES 

This novel-length version of Preludes expands on the original novella by adding 15 new chapters – several of them among the story’s longest – to the novella’s original 18 as well as substantial material to some of the original chapters. With this added content almost tripling the story’s length and with, as well, a number of sentence- and paragraph-level line edits in the original chapters, I hope that even for those who have read the original version, this novel-length version of Preludes will add significantly to your understanding of the various matters the story addresses, including the central issue of child sexual abuse. At the same time, for readers who have not read the original novella-length version, this novel-length version presents an entire, self-contained story, with no need to reference the original novella.

This novel-length version of Preludes deepens the story’s examination of the context in which the intra-family child sexual abuse of the sort depicted in the story can occur as well as how such abuse, while being kept hidden, can manifest itself in the abused child’s thinking and behavior. 

In addition, this novel-length version increases the story’s focus on the process of the boy’s path to healing as well as on possible measures for combatting child sexual abuse more effectively on a societal level.

The novel-length version of Preludes is available exclusively on the Amazon Kindle Store.
(This is the link for the US Kindle Store.
For another Kindle Store, please do a search for “John Brooks” or “Preludes” on that store’s website.)

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FOR AN EXTENSIVE EXPLORATION OF AN ADULT CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE SURVIVOR’S PATH TO HEALING:
THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF LIFE 

(Click/tap the cover for an excerpt and further details.)

Through the Valley of the Shadow of Life is a novel exploring, among other things, the ongoing effects of child sexual abuse on an adult survivor, the challenges he faces in his efforts to heal from these effects, and, in addition, his efforts to atone for harm he caused to others prior to such healing. Now available on the Amazon Kindle Store.
(This is the link for the US Kindle Store.
For another Kindle Store, please do a search for “John Brooks” or “Preludes” on that store’s website.)