Sold is the story of a 13 year old Nepali girl named Lakshmi. The narrative opens with a description of life in her villiage, how difficult it is for her family to feed everyone, and the male worship that is an overwhelming force in her part of the world. Lakshmi's stepfather is worshiped to the point where even though he openly talks of selling her and bets away all his money, and her mother still tells her to be thankful that they have a man looking after them.
Lakshmi feels the pressure to help earn money for her family and agrees to go and work. Her stepfather instead sells her to a trafficker without telling her and she ends up in an unnamed city in a brothel. Her transition from care free child to exploited woman is short and brutal. It is made clear that even those who escape their "debt" to the madam and are allowed to leave will never be welcomed back by their family and diseases are neither avoided nor rare.
At the end of the book, Lakshmi is rescued from the brothel by a man from an NGO. It leaves you feeling both glad she got out, and ashamed that so many will not.
Verdict: Read it. Sexual slavery and trafficking is a problem that spans the whole world and needs the attention of everyone.
Lakshmi feels the pressure to help earn money for her family and agrees to go and work. Her stepfather instead sells her to a trafficker without telling her and she ends up in an unnamed city in a brothel. Her transition from care free child to exploited woman is short and brutal. It is made clear that even those who escape their "debt" to the madam and are allowed to leave will never be welcomed back by their family and diseases are neither avoided nor rare.
At the end of the book, Lakshmi is rescued from the brothel by a man from an NGO. It leaves you feeling both glad she got out, and ashamed that so many will not.
Verdict: Read it. Sexual slavery and trafficking is a problem that spans the whole world and needs the attention of everyone.
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