God's Callgirl (61 page)

I thank my friends in the little town of Denmark where I live for having faithfully reflected back to me the ultimate truth of One Loving Presence.

C
ARLA VAN
R
AAY

About the Author

CARLA VAN RAAY
was born into the Catholic south of Holland and came to Melbourne, Australia, with her family in 1950, when she was twelve. She was a radiant child until the age of six, when trauma changed her. Her choice to enter a convent at the age of eighteen was part of her inability to face life. In 1969, when she was almost thirty-one, she found the courage to leave.

Carla adjusted to the world without guidance from anyone. She fell in love for the first time in her life more than two years after her marriage. Alone and with a daughter to support, the idea of prostitution came to her. She worked for pimps as an escort to learn the ropes, then struck out on her own. Loving her work at first, the nasty sides of the business gradually asserted themselves. Carla realised that she was being driven by dark forces. The truth eventually became clear and she was able to start healing the abuses of her childhood.

After twelve years of celibacy, Carla has entered into a new and different relationship, the topic of a work in progress entitled
The Price of Passion
. She is also producing a workbook on overcoming self-sabotage. Carla now lives in Perth, Western Australia. News of her talks and upcoming books is on her website:

www.carlavanraay.com

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Praise

‘an extraordinarily frank account’
The Age

‘It’s an extraordinary tale by any standards’
Weekend Australian

‘Van Raay’s compelling memoir, written simply but with deep insight and a passion for life, comes in three parts…Van Raay ties these three phases together with her search for the middle road, and her painful, joyful journey to self-acceptance’
Herald Sun

‘
God’s Callgirl
, a journey starkly recounted by van Raay in this study of a lost life recovered by bizarre chance’
Courier-Mail

‘
God’s Callgirl…
is a book of extremes…the need to understand human behaviour is what drives this narrative, with its overriding theme of guilt and innocence’
Sunday Telegraph

‘written simply but with deep insight and passion for life…Van Raay ties it together searching for the middle road and painful, joyful acceptance’
Daily Telegraph

‘[a] turbulent story, a frank and often shocking book’
New Idea

Copyright

HarperCollins
Publishers

An imprint of HarperCollins
Publishers
, Australia

First published in Australia in 2004
This edition published in 2010
by HarperCollins
Publishers
Australia Pty Limited

ABN 36 009 913 517

www.harpercollins.com.au

Copyright © Carla van Raay 2004

The right of Carla van Raay to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the
Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000
.

This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the
Copyright Act 1968
, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

HarperCollins
Publishers

25 Ryde Road, Pymble, Sydney NSW 2073, Australia

31 View Road, Glenfield, Auckland 10, New Zealand

77–85 Fulham Palace Road, London W6 8JB, United Kingdom

2 Bloor Street East, 20th floor, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8, Canada

10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022, USA

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Raay, Carla van.

God’s callgirl: one woman’s life journey from convent to sex worker.

ISBN: 9 7807 3228 2363 (pbk.)

ISBN: 978-0-730-49212-2 (ePub)

1. Raay, Carla van. 2. Prostitutes–Victoria–Melbourne–
Biography. 3. Ex-nuns–Victoria–Melbourne–Biography.
4. Adult child abuse victims–Victoria–Melbourne–
Biography. I. Title.

306.742092

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