"Silence has the rusty taste of shame. The words shut up are the most terrible words I know. . . . The man who raped me spat these words out over and over during the hours of my attack--when I screamed, when I tried to talk him out of what he was doing, when I protested. It seemed to me that for seven years--until at last I spoke--these words had sunk into my soul and become prophecy. And it seems to me now that these words, the brutish message of tyrants, preserve the darkness that still covers this pervasive crime. The real shame, as I have learned, is to consent to them."

After Silence is Nancy Venable Raine's eloquent, profoundly moving response to her rapist's command to "shut up," a command that is so often echoed by society and internalized by rape victims. Beginning with her assault by a stranger in her home in 1985, Raine's riveting narrative of the ten-year aftermath of her rape brings to light the truth that survivors of traumatic experiences know--a trauma does not end when you find yourself alive.
        
Just as devastating as the rape itself was the silence that shrouded it, a silence born of her own feelings of shame as well as the incomprehension of others. Raine gives shape, form, and voice to the "unspeakable" and exposes the misconceptions and cruelties that surround this prevalent though hidden crime. With formidable power and in intimate detail, she probes the long-term psychological and physiological aftereffects of rape, its tangled sexual confusions, the treatment of rape by the media and the legal and medical professions, and contemporary cultural views of victimhood.
        
For anyone, female or male, who has suffered from or witnessed the shattering effects of rape, After Silence inspires and points the way to healing. This landmark book is a stunning literary achievement that is a testimony to the power of language to transform the worst sort of violation and suffering into meaning and into art.

"After Silence is a book that dignifies the human spirit. It should be read by everyone.... Raine thinks the experience of rape shouldn't be different from the experience of other kinds of violence and assault. She wants the modern story of rape to be about violence and assault (plus the residual trauma associated with posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD) pure and simple, as though a forcible violation of the sanctity of the womb per se, the physical locus of social reproduction, carries no special or additional significance. Her claim that rape is just a crime of violence rather than a sexual act is bound to remain controversial.... Whatever one thinks of the discourse of PTSD as a way of talking about rape, its psychiatric proponents have never before had so authentic and qualified a front-line correspondent."
-New York Times Book Review

"After Silence is a personal road map of the journey back to wellness after one's body has been violated. How sad it is we need such a book, but since we do, how wonderful it is we have it."
--The Honorable Pat Schroeder, former U.S. congresswoman and President and CEO of the Association of American Publishers

"Deeply thought-provoking and emotionally powerful, After Silence made me rethink many of my ideas and feelings about rape. Nancy Raine addresses issues that many others have addressed before--but she does it on a much more profound and visceral level than I have yet seen."
-Mary Gaitskill, author of Bad Behavior and Because They Wanted To

"This is the most important book ever written about rape. It breaks new ground in person-alizing and contextualizing the aftershock of trauma. I am deeply grateful that Nancy Venable Raine has chosen to break her silence about this still fraught and dangerous topic."
-Louise DeSalvo, author of Virginia Woolf:
The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Her Life and Work

"What Nancy Venable Raine gives us in After Silence is a brilliant and complex vision of evil and redemption. Taking us with her on her journey, she moves us back by inches from the brink of Hell. Like all seminal works, this book will change the way we think. It will change the way we consider the 'we and they' of rape."
-Lynn Freed, author of The Mirror

"This is an inspiring account of how a shattering experience, with its insidious effects long after, can be transcended by literature. The journey back is truly the riveting and original contribution her book makes to the subject"
-Diane Johnson, author of It Le Divorce

"Who could imagine such a calm, wise, beautifully written book on the subject of rape? After Silence is a gift to others who, like Nancy Raine, have triumphed over terror. It's also a gift to the friends, family, spouses, and partners of rape victims. To read this book is to understand"
Cyra McFadden, author of The Serial

Nancy Venable Raine is a poet and essayist whose work has appeared in many national periodicals. She and her husband live on a farm in southern Virginia.