A Walk Across the Sun is a debut novel about the sex-traffic trade in underage children. How can that be a satisfying read? Corban Addison has figured it out by combining a love story, two sisters' devotion and a man discovering his true self in this stunning, moving account of one of our world's great shames.
Boxing Day 2004, a tsunami hits southeast Asia: Ahalya, 17, and her younger sister, Sita, cling to palm trees until the water recedes, watching as their world--parents and home--is obliterated. They try to make it to their school, but their ride delivers them to a dingy flat in a shady neighborhood and locks them up. They are then sold to a brothel in Mumbai.
When Ahalya is chosen to make her "debut," Sita is forced to sit outside the room to listen: "It will be a good lesson for her." And so Ahalya becomes a beshya, a prostitute.
At the same time, on another continent, Thomas Clarke's world is crumbling: his wife, Priya, has left him and gone back to Mumbai and his law firm just lost a big case, and he's the scapegoat. He decides to take a pro bono stint with CASE--the Coalition Against Sexual Exploitation--in Mumbai.
He soon participates in a brothel raid, where Ahalya is rescued--but Sita has been sold. The buyer has something other than sex in mind: Sita is to be a heroin mule, transporting drugs to Paris. She is sold over and over, each time for more money, and ends up in the U.S., still a virgin, still valuable.
Ahalya charges Thomas with finding Sita, and binds him with a rakhi bracelet, signifying that Thomas is now Ahalya's brother, and is duty-bound to act in her defense. But he's just a lawyer working for an NGO. What can he do?
As the story builds, the excitement increases along with the horror. The counterpoint of Thomas and Priya's relationship, and the sisters' love for each other, are hopeful antidotes to the darkness. --Marilyn Dahl, reviews editor, Shelf Awareness