Lesley Smailes

When Lesley Smailes set off from Port Elizabeth for a gap year, her mother joked: «Whatever you do, don't get married. And don't join a cult.» But within months, Lesley was part of a notorious American sect, married to a man she hardly knew and allowed only minimal contact with her family. Despite rape, home births and a forced abortion, her belief was unshakeable. Until she was faced with the terrifyingly real threat of losing her children… Harrowing at times, but also funny and wise,...