[+]Enlarge Image NEW Edition (Oct 2011)

[+]Enlarge Image Original Edition

Hell on the Way to Heaven

Paperback ISBN: 9781741669527 (original Edition); 9781742753041 (New Edition)
Author(s): Chrissie Foster with Paul Kennedy Publisher: Random House

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

An Australian mother's love. The power of the Catholic Church. A fight for justice over child sexual abuse.

Chrissie and Anthony Foster were like any other young family, raising their three daughters in suburban Melbourne with what they hoped were the right values. Chrissie could not have known that the stranger-danger she feared actually lurked in the presbytery attached to the girls' Catholic primary school. Father Kevin O'Donnell, a long-term paedophile, lived and worked there.

Two of their young daughters became victims of O'Donnell. And once the truth was revealed, the Fosters began a battle to find out how this could have happened. The Church offered silence, lies, denials and threats. Meanwhile, their daughters tried to piece together their fractured lives.

This is the chilling true story that made national and international headlines. Chrissie Foster's heartbreaking account of her family's suffering, and their determination to stand up for themselves against the might of the Catholic Church, is testament to the strength of a mother's love, and the resilience of the human spirit.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Chrissie Foster was born in Victoria and grew up in Black Rock, a beachside suburb on Port Phillip Bay. She worked as a public servant for nine years, during which time she travelled extensively around Europe, the US and Mexico. She married in 1980 and by 1985 Anthony and Chrissie had three beautiful daughters, Emma, Katie and Aimee. Paul Kennedy is an ABC television presenter, senior print journalist, and director of an award-winning short film. He is married with two sons and lives in Melbourne.

REVIEW:
"Reading Ms Foster's book, it is hard not to conclude that, far from being resolved, the scandal of child sex abuse by clergy is still unfinished business. It is time finally for governments to act on the Senate's 2007 motion calling for a royal commission into child sex abuse." ...James Campbell, Sunday Herald-Sun Read full review HERE. Comments on Catholica HERE.