Review of Patricia McCormick's Sold

Following a young girl through the horrors of human trafficking, Patricia McCormick tells the heart wrenching story of an estimated 1.2 billion children  each year. McCormick grew up in the suburbs of Central Pennsylvania where she graduated from Rosemont College. After graduating she pursued her writing career by getting her graduate degree. McCormick now finds herself writing about difficult and important topics that aren’t in the mainstream media. She says, “I want to bring attention to issues people might not otherwise know about and I want to change attitudes”

To research her novel Sold, McCormick traveled to Nepal and interviewed many locals including young girls who were rescued from the brothels and the men that went undercover as customers to get information to girls in slavery. Her research provided an understanding not obtainable from websites and books, and allowed her to truly understand the horrors of human trafficking.

The book begins in a small, poverty ridden village in the countryside of Nepal. Lakshmi, a girl around thirteen years old, lives with her loving mother and her stepfather who spends his time gambling at the tea shop instead of working. Her family struggles to make ends meet, and as the seasons go by her mother has a baby, worsening their financial troubles. Lakshmi proposes the idea that she could work in the city as a maid because her best friend was believed to be working there. After the arrangements had finished, Lakshmi began her journey to the big city, escorted by her new "auntie", the first of many people to assist in the selling of Lakshmi to a prostitution house. Still wide eyed and hopeful, and believing she would be a maid, Lakshmi asked her auntie "If the roofs are really made of gold."

After walking miles and miles, taking her first bus trips, and having encounters with wonders she had never before seen in her country village, Lakshmi is taken to a young man. This man gained Lakshmi's trust by giving her sweets and lollipops and buying her food when she was hungry on the long train ride, just to hand her off to Mumtaz, the owner of the Happiness House, a prostitution house that buys or tricks young women into a life of sexual slavery. The girls are stripped of their dignity and all that they are, and are forced, even drugged if they do not cooperate, into sleeping with men. Lakshmi desperately tries to hold on to who she was in her village, smelling the clothes she used to wear, and at first refusing to participate.

While at the Happiness House, Lakshmi meets many young women in similar situations as her. One of the women, Pushpa, has young children with her, including a young boy Lakshmi befriends, who she calls "David Beckham boy." When this boy catches Lakshmi looking through his school books, he offers her lessons. Even after Pushpa and her kids are kicked out when Pushpa is too sick to work, David Beckham boy's kindness does not end when he gives Lakshmi a brand new pencil, and Lakshmi gives him a soccer ball made from her old clothes.

One day a man walks into her room and Lakshmi prepared herself, but the man does not approach her. Instead he told her he is an American and asked her her name and age and if is she was forced to be here. Lakshmi was paralyzed with fear and remained silent, The man gave her a business card and tells Lakshmi he can take her to a “clean place” where she would be safe. The man leaves, and Lakshmi, still shocked that the man payed and did not use her services, slipped the card under her bed and tried to forget about the event. She has heard that the Americans are bad and will hurt you, but knew this man was different.

A few weeks later, another American comes and shook her hand, just like the first. He showed her pictures of the “clean place.” He sensed her trepidation and showed her more pictures of girls there that are happy and laughing together. The man tells her Mumtaz can not force her to be here, and that he would be back for her during the raid, and that she would have to show herself when they arrived.  Lakshmi is nervous about him and does not know if his intentions are right, but she smiles and knows he is good.

Very early one morning Lakshmi hears the commotion of police officers fighting with Mumtaz, and she knew it was time to go with the Americans. As the other girls tried to push her into hiding, Lakshmi breaks free and ran down the stairs in front of Mumtaz, who is being held back by officers. Lakshmi calmly stated her name and her age, and she knew she was safe.

Being rescued is not how most stories of human trafficking end. Twenty to thirty million people are enslaved around the globe, the majority are women, and about half are children. People are torn from their homes, or traded and sold by family members that are either tricked into believing they are going to work for an honest living, or are willingly selling their family member into slavery. After being taken, 46% are taken into sexual slavery, 28% are domestic labor slaves, and the rest are miscellaneous slaves forced into various odd jobs at places such as restaurants or construction. A very interesting talk on one woman's personal experience with human trafficking and her journalism career that is focused on bringing awareness of human trafficking to the modern world.

By writing in the point of view of a young girl actively going through the traumatic experience or sexual slavery, McCormick allows the reader to put themselves in Lakshmi’s shoes and understand what each and every day feels like for millions of women around the world. McCormick could have easily written Sold in the point of view of the American police officer saving the day, but she chose to allow herself to go through the process of feeling as millions of other young women do everyday.

McCormick chose to write Sold in short scenes, almost as if it was Lakshmi’s journal, which makes the complicated and emotional process of reading about the reality of sexual slavery easier to digest. This book is a quick read that I read in a few hours one day in the comfort of my hammock, and managed to change the way I think about everyday life, and has brought the topic of human trafficking to the front of my brain. Patricia McCormick has written an incredible book on a topic not often talked about or understood and is worlds away from many of our everyday lives, yet is still relatable for millions of people around the world. The awareness of human trafficking will continue this fall the movie Sold will be released in the US.