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ISBN: 9780786851720
Publication Date: 22 April 2008

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 x2019;s crops, Lakshmi x2019;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 x201C;Happiness House x201D; 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 x2019;s debt x2014;then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so that she can never leave.
Lakshmi x2019;s life becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. Still, she lives by her mother x2019;s words x2014;"Simply to endure is to triumph" x2014;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 x2014;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.