Bridge Across My Sorrows by Christina Noble

A story of bravery and resilience in the face of deprivation and abuse on a scale most would find unimaginable. Christina's childhood in the Dublin slums barely merits the name: after the early death of their mother the family is split apart, their alcoholic father unable to care for them. She is sexually abused and later escapes from an orphanage only to become destitute on the streets of Dublin.

At 16 she is pulled into a car by four men and raped repeatedly. Later driven to near insanity by overwork and a violent husband, she finds in a dream the will to fight back. Christina's hope lies in a determination to work among the street children of Vietam. And here the most extraordinary part of the story begins, on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, where destitute children swarm and the rich turn a blind eye. To these needy children 'Mama Tina' became, and remains to this day, an irrepressible, unorthodox and staunch champion.

Pocket paperback, 1999, 316pages, good condition