The thirteen year old Lakshmi lives with her mom and stepfather in a small rural village on a hill in Nepal. The family is poor, and after a very bad monsoon her father tells her mother that they have to send Lakshmi away to the city so she can work as a maid for rich people and send money back to home.They go the the little village shop where she is sold to a woman who brings her to the city. After a few days long journey by foot and bus, she is given to 'Uncle Husband' who brings her into India.There she is brought to the Happines House. Lakshmi has no clue what she has to do for work. She has to take her village clothes of and change into a bright colored long dress and nice shoes. And she gets make up on. She is brought to a little room where she is told she can't escape and she has 20.000 rupee in debt, and she has to work to pay her debt of.
The next night she discovers more about Happines House and the work she has to do. And she is horrified after the next night when she finds out that Happines House is a brothel.Can she escape from out of this horrible place?
The story of Lakshmi is told in short chapters wich last long as one page. In simple words we discover more about her life with simple hints and details. The way the author tells the story is very different and original and it keeps you reading to find out how it ends. It is so horrible that the story of Lakshmi is realistic and that young girls of this age are sold and forced into prostitution by their parents, who think their daughter is working as a maid in the city.Hopefully for all the girls in the world who are living the same kind of life as Lakshmi, they get the same rescue as her at the end of the book. Altough it was a very sad story I enjoyed to read it because I think it's important that there are books about this topic.The author interviewed young women like Lakshmi for this book Recommended read!
