The book is sad, honest, raw and beautiful at the same time. This is undoubtedly going to be one of my favorite books. 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. Then the day comes when she must make a decision - will she risk everything for a chance to reclaim her life?

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. Lakshmi's life becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. 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. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution.Īn old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cruelty and cunning. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi journeys to India and arrives at 'Happiness House' full of hope. He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid in the city. 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. 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. Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. Audie Award Finalist, Package Design, 2014

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