ON SOUTH MOUNTAIN

Viking, Toronto, 1997, 1^st/1^st.  ISBN 0-670-87388-8.  Hard cover, 290 pages including Notes, Bibliography, and Acknowledgments.  Very good; blue boards with gilt lettering on spine, a bit of sun fading along lower edges, binding sound with headbands and a slight lean.  Dust jacket with price intact shows light edge wear, some light rubs and scratches.  Interior clean and unmarked; a few pages have light impressions in the fore-edge margins possibly from being clipped together.  ‘Valley people have always shunned the Clans, derided their accents, manners and hygiene, and attributed despicable practices to them.  Those on the Mountain pay little heed to the Valley.  This division has existed for as long as anyone can remember.  Then one day, a fourteen-year-old Mountain girl told authorities that her father had be “using her as a wife.”  This revelation sparked a massive investigation which revealed a horrific tale of incest, sexual and physical abuse and psychological torture.  Eventually, sixteen men and women, almost an entire generation of one Clan, faced more than one hundred and fifty criminal charges.  At the same time, eleven children, also an entire generation of the same Clan, were taken from their homes. … For over a century church officials, academics, politicians, teachers, social workers and doctors knew what was happening on South Mountain – but they chose to look the other way.’ (from front flap)