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Hyperion
April 2008
On Sale: April 1, 2008
263 pages
ISBN: 0786851724
EAN: 9780786851720
Paperback
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Fiction
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.
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