Jenny Rat
(Book)

Jenny, a young girl who has been sexually abused since childhood and now brutally assaulted, has been reduced to utter despair. She is saved by a reclusive, shy young man, Michael, twenty eight years old, who stumbles across her dying in the gutter outside his isolated house. He is a brilliant consultant engineer who works from home with his computers, rarely venturing outside. Profoundly shocked he gets her to hospital and visits her there as she struggles to recover. Mentally she is shattered. He is greatly shaken by the intrusion into his settled life but, full of compassion cannot abandon her. She recognizes in him a hope of refuge and determines to live with him. He welcomes her. They pretend to be sister and brother but this cannot last. She has great talents as a sculptor. He encourages her, providing tools and materials as she grows, constructs and reconstructs her works and her life. She begins to chip at him as she shapes her art. He is compelled to expand outside his self-imposed solitude. She attends school and brings friends to the house. A crisis develops which they overcome with difficulty. They become lovers. As they both continue to develop and grow, their relationship alters. At first he was the stronger, advising her to take control of her own life. She discovers in herself the power to do so and knows she is responsible for changing him too. As they grow further, more changes must be faced.