The Ones Who Got Away

Description for THE ONES WHO GOT AWAY: WOMEN WHO LEFT ABUSIVE PARTNERS by Ginny NiCarthy:

Since the battered women's movement began fifteen years ago, one of the most frequently asked questions has been: "Why do women stay in abusive relationships?" For Ginny NiCarthy, a more intriguing and ultimately more important question has been: "Why do women leave---and how do they stay away?"

Now, after many years of interviews and research, NiCarthy takes us directly into the lives of thirty-three women who, challenging popular images of passivity, left abusive partners and stated their lives over:

JANE---Educated, sophisticated and from a white middle-class family, Jane's second husband battered her. Now she's on her own, has a satisfying full-time job and is content to be single.

TERRY---Born in Taiwan and raised on the West Coast, where she earned a degree in accounting, Terry was briefly married to an abusive man she met in a community chorus. Currently she volunteers at a service for battered Asian women.

MARGARET---A white fifty-year-old grandmother of nine, Margaret killer her abusive husband in self-defense. Her conviction for second-degree murder was successfully overturned and she is now happily remarried.

MADDIE---A black medical records clerk, Maddie married at age sixteen and was abused by her husband for ten years before she got out. She writes poetry and stories and enjoys her single life and two children.

A powerful, heart-wrenching and inspiring collection of interviews with...the ones who got away.