This story was first written as a play which I unfortunately missed last year when it was on in Melbourne. When the novel from which the play was based was selected by our book group I was looking forward to reading it.
The novel is about Tessa, a young brilliant barrister in London. She’s worked hard to get there having come from a working-class background where her mother is a cleaner and her brother is trying to stay out of jail having been there for a short time when he was younger. She has clawed her way through the class system to be the best at her job as a criminal defense barrister. But she also knows she works in the hallowed turf of London establishment where her colleagues come from privileged and entitled backgrounds.
She loves the law and believes in it. Then one night she finds herself in a position, like one in three women, where she is raped by a colleague. She won’t be silent and takes it to court with all the consequences that you can imagine.
This is an emotional and raw story and the author doesn’t hold anything back as she explores the price that victims play not just from the crime but from the process of seeking justice.
The first half of the novel gives insights into Tessa’s life from her family background of domestic violence and poverty, to her climb to Cambridge where she’s told one in three will never make it in Law. Through dogged determination she is the one who does make it but the feeling of being inadequate and of being of the wrong class is emphasised over and over again. For me that was a little too repetitious. The second half of the novel was all about the court case which was cleverly interspersed with the events immediately after the crime occurred.
Tessa does have full faith in the law and I did wonder as a criminal barrister why she was naïve enough to believe that the law could protect her in this case when the law itself works against sexual abuse cases. But like others who have gone before her, to make a stand and have a voice is what ends up being as important.
It’s a powerful story and one that everyone should read. Although it was set in London, the issues around misogynistic law applies equally in Australia and reminds me of Louise Milligan’s book called Witness where she deals with the factual inadequacies in our own legal system when it comes to sexual abuse crimes.
Highly recommend this one.
S.C. Karakaltsas 