Adult New Book Display Main Level - ADDISON
What a great book! This one is highly recommended to adults and mature teens. It's not warm and fuzzy, but just as John Grisham said in his review across the top of the cover, it is beautiful in story and important in message.
It is about two teenage sisters in India whose family die in a tsunami, leaving them orphaned. The same day, they are kidnapped and sold into the Mumbai sex trade. The sisters are ultimately separated, and the book tells their individual stories.
Then there is Thomas, a lawyer who leaves his high-profile corporate job to work for an NGO that tries to rescue girls from sexual slavery in India. Thomas and his wife are separated, and she just happens to have returned to her family in India. The two meet up and try to salvage their marriage.
I can't give away the whole story, but Thomas's story intertwines with that of the sisters'. Will have be able to rescue them? Will the sisters be reunited?
As disgusted as I was reading about human trafficking, I learned a lot from this story. I was moved by the plight of the sisters and the good intentions of the non-profits who work to help girls in their situation. I was also horrified at the corruption in the Indian legal system and the issues of jurisdiction when the problem crosses borders. Even those who want to help are hindered by legalities, loopholes, and international politics.
It's a reasonably-sized book at less than 400 pages, but its message is huge and worth hearing. It's a riveting story, and although this is fiction, I'm afraid it is all too a reality in many young girls' lives.
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