Emerging from the shame and the shadow of pain, author, child sexual abuse, survivor and activist Julie Marie Mansfield penned Maybe God Was Busy, which traces her journey growing up behind the tourist veil of Jamaica, one of the most beloved islands in the world. It is a raw, unaltered look at an idyllic childhood interrupted by constant sexual abuse. From molestation, to incest, to sex with the “church brother,” to sex with the voodoo practitioner charged with saving a dying brother, to a pregnancy and abortion — sans anesthesia — at age 15, everything is revealed. Maybe God Was Busy is truly raw and authentic — a memoir saturated with abuse, survival, forgiveness, triumph and redemption — and yes, laughter.
