Book Review: A Walk Across the Sun by Corban Addison

Title: A Walk Across the Sun
Author: Corban Addison
Genre: Drama
Subject: Indian Culture, Sex Industry
Publisher: Silveroak
Release date: January, 2011
Length: 384 pages
I got this book: borrowed it from the library

Summary:
From Goodreads:
"When a tsunami rages through their coastal town in India, 17-year-old Ahalya Ghai and her 15-year-old sister Sita are left orphaned and homeless. With almost everyone they know suddenly erased from the face of the earth, the girls set out for the convent where they attend school. They are abducted almost immediately and sold to a Mumbai brothel owner, beginning a hellish descent into the bowels of the sex trade.

Halfway across the world, Washington, D.C., attorney Thomas Clarke faces his own personal and professional crisis-and makes the fateful decision to pursue a pro bono sabbatical working in India for an NGO that prosecutes the subcontinent's human traffickers. There, his conscience awakens as he sees firsthand the horrors of the trade in human flesh, and the corrupt judicial system that fosters it. Learning of the fate of Ahalya and Sita, Clarke makes it his personal mission to rescue them, setting the stage for a riveting showdown with an international network of ruthless criminals."

Personal opinion:
This book was a quite tragic and heavy read. The story of Ahalya and Sita is heartbreaking. First they lose everyone and everything they know and when you think it couldn't get worse, it got so much worse I almost couldn't believe it. The story is told from different points of view. While I was drawn into the story of the girls immediately, I couldn't really care for the story of Thomas at the beginning. I just don't have too much empathy for people who drown themselves in their career. I guess it is because I can't relate to those people. Anyway as soon as Thomas arrived in Mumbai, that part started to pick up too and the stories all came together nicely. I was most impressed by the story of Sita after she gets separated from her sister and all the things she has to go through. The turns towards the end of the story were a bit unlikely for me to happen, but I understand why the author made the choice to wrap it all up that way. It was a little bit too convenient to happen. I did like the ending regardless and the rest of the book was very convincing.

I liked it! 

Purchase links: Amazon
Challenges: What's in a name.
Other reviews: Killin' Time Reading
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