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)

Unknown Feeling

I'm so shocked how this has actually happened to some people. it gets me so mad to hear and visualize young women being tortured sexually for the pleasure of disgusting men who can't find a women on their own. Bastards have to take advantage of children and teens. I'm so saddened that I'm honestly confused about all the things that went on in the book.

keep telling the story

the more we tell the story the closer we will get to stopping all this human trafficking.

A must read

A true horrible story of children sold by their families into sexual slavery. These are children from Nepal whose family very well may not be aware of the destiny of their children. Told through the eyes and heart of a twelve year old girl who makes this story riveting.

great story, not a great narrator selection

I really enjoyed this young adult novel about a young girl in the sex trade against her wishes. However the narrator's voice sounded like an old woman, not a young girl - the American accent was irritating to me also. Wish I had read this one.

Very moving

This story is told in a very matter of fact way that makes it all the more powerful—by the end you will really be moved to fight this atrocity.

Straight Forward

Without giving graphic details. The narrator did a great job switching accents which allowed the story to flow smoothly. The crisis of trafficking young girls needs attention like this to educate the public. Bravo to those working so hard to save as many girls as they can!

You must read this story

This book was written to honor the girls/women who have been sexually trafficked in Nepal and India. It’s important that you hear the story.

Knocked my socks off

This is a short (only 3 1/2 hours) powerful story of a frighteningly real horror going on today in Nepal and India. Young girls in the mountains of Nepal are sold by their gullible, desperate parents into what they are told are good jobs as maids in good households in India. What they are really sold into is sexual slavery. They may be sold and resold as they are taken farther and farther into India until they reach a brothel where they are held in captivity and simply used until they sicken and either die or are simply turned out. This story is actually written for young adults, and while it is harsh in its telling of the truth, it's also a story of courage and resiliency and coming of age in a way American children can mostly not imagine.

Ms. Eyre narrates it beautifully, with exactly the right pacing.

I was spellbound, but it was not easy to listen to.

A must listen

This is a story about young girls, barely out of puberty who are thrust into a world of sexual and physical abuse by both their handlers and customers. Their parents, desperate for money and often with hopes they are sending their children off into the world often do not know they have been duped and their children are headed into an unspeakable existence. People do evil things in the world all in pursuit of lining their pockets. It's a sad state of affairs where young children are sold into prostitution. I want to shame all of those people out there who have no qualms about supporting the industry of child prostitution.

Excellent

A well narrated book with a powerful message. A tale of the other side . . . The side of humanity we don't want to believe happens, but also, a side of unspeakable strength that we can only hope we would have if needed.