Saturday, May 21, 2016

book review: "A Walk Across the Sun"...

... written by Corban Addison, copyright 2012, Regulus Books.  Not for the squeamish. (Which most definitely includes me, the person who recently got up five minutes into a too intense movie and asked for a refund.  I should have known better, as one of the lead characters is so distasteful I would never have lasted all the way through to the credits at the end.)

The book was about two young Indian sisters, who suddenly become orphans, as a result of a tsunami in the south Pacific Ocean.  They had been schooled by nuns, and raised in a life of what the western world would consider 'middle class' privilege. Amenities many on the subcontinent will never see or enjoy. A comfortable lifestyle provided by educated working parents. Then suddenly with a tree height wave of rushing sea water, everything is changed.

As they attempt to make their way to the school and safety of church compound, they accept help from strangers, who sell them into the sex trade. They are taken to a brothel and locked in a hidden room. It is a worrisome, heart-wrenching tale. Written as fiction, but probably with much more truth and accuracy than we would like to admit or believe.

The sisters are held captive in a whorehouse. Poorly fed, carelessly housed, lives managed by an older woman who runs the house of ill repute, on a street lined with similar establishments. The older girl, barely past adolescence, is repeatedly used, raped, sold, and becomes pregnant, likely by the owner/pimps' son, but is rescued in a raid on the brothel in the slums of Bombay.

Her younger sister is sold, and taken away. Used to ferry drugs in her stomach, when she is forced into a sham marriage and taken to Paris on a false passport, supposedly on 'honeymoon' with the man who purchased her from the brothel owner. Sold again, used as slave labor in Paris. Sold again, taken to the US on a false passport. Sold again, taken to Atlanta, and sold again in a internet porn. scheme. And finally, rescued due to internet tracking and intervention by Interpol, US Justice and FBI. With the ongoing story thread of a US attorney who was working for an NGO in Bombay, while trying to reunite with his estranged, native Indian wife.

Lots of anxious moments, where each twist and turn in the plot has you on edge, continually hoping for the best, while envisioning the worst in human trafficking/child porn/sex trade industry. A great read. Interesting, very well researched, more information than you want to know about underage sex trafficking in the US as well as developing countries. Definitely a story/plot line for a great movie.

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