Sold

By: Patricia McCormick

Narrated by: Justine Eyre

Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Finalist, Package Design, 2014

Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. Though she is desperately poor, her life is full of simple pleasures, like playing hopscotch with her best friend from school and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family's crops, Lakshmi's stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family. He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi journeys to India and arrives at "Happiness House" full of hope. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution.

An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cruelty and cunning. She tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family's debt - then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so that she can never leave. Lakshmi's life becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. Still, she lives by her mother's words - simply to endure is to triumph - and gradually, she forms friendships with the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new world. Then the day comes when she must make a decision - will she risk everything for a chance to reclaim her life?

Written in spare and evocative vignettes, this powerful novel renders a world that is as unimaginable as it is real, and a girl who not only survives but triumphs.

©2006 Patricia McCormick (P)2012 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Hard-hitting...poignant. The author beautifully balances the harshness of brothel life with the poignant relationships among its residents." ( Publishers Weekly Starred Review)

Excellent listen.

Where does Sold rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Sold ranks amoung one of my favorite audible books!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Lakshmi the main charachter was definitely my favorite. She was naive but also had great wisdom. I loved her ability to do what she needed to do to protect herself.

Have you listened to any of Justine Eyre’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not listened to any other of Justine Eyer's erformances but would deffinitely seek them out after having listened to this one. She was wonderful, and so believeable as a young girl.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The end when Lakshmi ran down to the American and identified herself.

Any additional comments?

I loved this audible book, I'll listen again, and again.

For Older Teens

Well done! Beautifully written and narrated, but also a very sad and haunting tale. If you're going to listen with your younger teen, be prepared to answer some very difficult "real world" questions. I'd suggest 16 and older.

Past, yes. Present, yes,. Future? U decide.

Past, yes. Present, yes. Future, ?. You decide. A global issue and clean up starts at home.

Importance of storytelling . . .

The story was well written and read from beginning to end. I slipped immediately into the main character's role and in her world. It is important for every child, every molested, raped, abused, and or sold child to be able to tell their story and be heard. Every woman (and men) needs to listen . . . to hear this child's story.

A great read. Couldn't put it down.

This book is written through the eyes of a poor and innocent girl who thinks she is going to be work as a maid but is sold into sex slavery. The author unfolds a gripping story about the trafficking of children, the oppressed life they lead and their struggle to stay alive and gain freedom. It is sad but also inspiring and informative.

Well written character study

I enjoyed this story very much. It was well written and full of wonderful characters. It is not my normal genre. I listened to it twice none time right after the other.

Horribly sad. A must read

Very well-written. Sad. Depressing. Motivating. More must be done to stop such an awful practice.

Wow

It is so hard to believe that families are still selling their female children in this day and age. What a sad state. This story like so many encourages me to get involved with the human trafficking efforts in any way I can.

Important.

This book told a very important and real story that happens today. Sometimes we have to make ourselves uncomfortable to make a positive change. This story was very well told!

Tears Hidden in the Rain/Review for Parents

Patricia McCormick's "Sold" (2006) is nominally a Young Adult novel. According to the current version of Wikipedia, that means writing directed at readers age 14 to 21. The narrator, Lakshmi, is 13 and turns 14 during the novel, so nominally, it is about a young adult.

In actuality, "Sold" is incredibly disturbing but not graphic story. Lakshmi becomes one of thousands of Nepalese children traded into modern sexual slavery. Her mother, Ama, is a typical failure of an uneducated mother, raised to please men, and unable to care for her oldest child. Unnamed stepfather sees Lakshmi as a possession to be sold as a maid and house cleaner to pay off his gambling debts. Lakshmi is traded three or four times, each time for more money. Eventually, she lands in brothel called Happiness House. There's an evil, cheating Madam, Mumtaz, who sells Lakshmi's innocence, twice.

Stock characters aside, "Sold" is a well researched and sensitive portrayal of crimes that the United Nations has been trying to stop for decades. It's one thing to read dry numbers about crop failures, annual family incomes, and human smuggling, but that's not really effective with people born in wealthy countries like the United States. There is poverty in America, but it's not the kind of poverty that regularly claims more than half of its children in their first year. There are droughts, but they don't result in mass starvation. And education is mandatory, not a luxury.

A book like "Sold" makes it possible to empathize with a country and culture so different that even the statistics don't make the situation real.

Would I let my kids read/listen to this? Yes, and I have no reservations about my senior in high school with this book. My 14 year old? Well, it's nightmare-inducing scary. I'm glad I listened to it first so I'll be able to answer questions she'll have if she does read.

The Audible is fine, and the narrator handles non-Western names with ease. I would have been fine reading this in text, though - to me, Nepali and Indian names sound like they are written. Years of listening to Lakshmi Singh/NPR will do that for you.

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