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Outlook: Why I Wrote a Book with my Rapist

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Thordis Elva and Tom Stranger

21/06/2017 GMT

Why I Wrote a Book with my Rapist

BBC World Service - Outlook, Why I Wrote a Book with my Rapist

Rape survivor Thordis Elva made the extraordinary decision to confront her rapist.

From rape to reconciliation: Rape survivor Thordis Elva and the man who raped her, Tom Stranger, on the book they've written together, examining the impact of rape.

At the age of 16, Icelandic Thordis Elva was raped by a man she considered to be her boyfriend at the time - eighteen year old Australian Tom Stranger. The rape lasted two hours and its impact on Thordis lasted for years afterwards.  But nine years after it happened Thordis made an extraordinary decision - she got back in touch with her rapist and began to exchange emails with him to try to understand what had motivated the violence and to examine the impact it had on both of them. Thordis and Tom have now written a book together - South of Forgiveness - to chart what they've learned.

Hugh Thomson is a British travel writer and explorer who has been on many expeditions to Peru in search of ancient Inca ruins. For his latest adventure, though, he chose to stay much closer to home. He set off with a mule called Jethro to walk across the north of England - from the Lake District to the Yorkshire moors, using old drovers' roads and mule tracks that have fallen into disrepair.

Knife throwing is something you'd often see at a circus or carnival. But it's also a sport, similar to archery or darts, where people throw knives at a target and try to hit the bull's eye. Obviously it's something only highly-trained people can do, and not something you should try yourself. Reporter Tania Ketenjian went to meet a knife throwing duo in the United States who stand out in the sport because one of them is blind.


(Picture: Thordis Elva and Tom Stranger. Credit: BBC.)

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