README |  4 ++++
 r.go   |  4 +++-
 w.go   | 10 +++++++---

diff --git a/README b/README
index 08b01d4cc032270e4c6da77a4914ed5a8ad0b940f75dfe23ae21fc9bb80f94c6..9197bf147fa9556e0334b1982299c9e53aaeefd0ef070c6583270732ec12d9de 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -7,4 +7,8 @@ * iterate through the records and their fields
 * ignore comments
 * support continuation lines (\$) and multilines (^+)
 
+Limitations:
+* leading spaces in the first line of the value are ignored
+* trailing backslash at the end of lines is cut
+
 It is free software: see the file COPYING for copying conditions.
diff --git a/r.go b/r.go
index 03fb50ecbf893ccdcec393b81948db2ba4dc0007bac1800c96adcb5b00e695eb..bd079e22e81aa7cc30147a600362b8d372b96c800fab876905e6bb8d43cfdb0c 100644
--- a/r.go
+++ b/r.go
@@ -80,7 +80,9 @@ 		}
 		text = r.scanner.Text()
 
 		if continuation {
-			if text[len(text)-1] == '\\' {
+			if len(text) == 0 {
+				continuation = false
+			} else if text[len(text)-1] == '\\' {
 				lines = append(lines, text[:len(text)-1])
 			} else {
 				lines = append(lines, text)
diff --git a/w.go b/w.go
index b265dda7a875c0b6e5aee3287cae56acbf4586df372d88bde5759d04f3b0efd3..0f4b84203d3d7b13dba930651e85c77edbad427ab7dff54eb0bcbb0127df4a0c 100644
--- a/w.go
+++ b/w.go
@@ -37,7 +37,9 @@
 func (w *Writer) WriteFields(fs ...Field) (written int, err error) {
 	var n int
 	for _, f := range fs {
-		n, err = w.w.WriteString(f.Name + ": " + strings.TrimLeft(f.Value, " ") + "\n")
+		n, err = w.w.WriteString(
+			f.Name + ": " + strings.TrimRight(strings.TrimLeft(f.Value, " "), "\\") + "\n",
+		)
 		written += n
 		if err != nil {
 			return
@@ -48,13 +50,15 @@ }
 
 func (w *Writer) WriteFieldMultiline(name string, lines []string) (written int, err error) {
 	var n int
-	n, err = w.w.WriteString(name + ": " + strings.TrimLeft(lines[0], " ") + "\n")
+	n, err = w.w.WriteString(
+		name + ": " + strings.TrimRight(strings.TrimLeft(lines[0], " "), "\\") + "\n",
+	)
 	written += n
 	if err != nil {
 		return
 	}
 	for _, l := range lines[1:] {
-		n, err = w.w.WriteString("+ " + l + "\n")
+		n, err = w.w.WriteString("+ " + strings.TrimRight(l, "\\") + "\n")
 		written += n
 		if err != nil {
 			return