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Summary
Summary
Corban Addison's debut novel, A Walk Across the Sun, made waves when it was first published, called "pulse-revving with a serious message," by O , the Oprah magazine . John Grisham said, "Addison has written a novel that is beautiful in its story and also important in its message. A Walk Across The Sun deserves a wide audience." A trained lawyer committed to the cause of advancing international human rights and abolishing modern slavery, Addison has written a novel that enlightens while it entertains; A Walk Across the Sun brings together three of Addison's great passions--storytelling, human rights, and the world's many cultures.
Ahalya Ghai and her younger sister Sita are as close as sisters can be. But when a tsunami rips through their coastal village, their home is swept away, and the sisters are the sole survivors of their family. Destitute, their only hope is to find refuge at a convent many miles away. A driver agrees to take them. But the moment they get into that car their fate is sealed. The two sisters--confused, alone, totally reliant on each other--are sold.
On the other side of the world, Washington lawyer Thomas Clarke is struggling to cope after the death of his baby daughter and the collapse of his marriage. He takes a sabbatical from his high-pressure job and accepts a position with the Bombay branch of an international anti-trafficking group. Thomas is now on a desperate path to try and save not only himself and his marriage, but also the lives of the two sisters.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In his debut novel, lawyer Addison uncovers the labyrinthine underside of human trafficking in this dazzling transcontinental story about the power of conviction, the bonds of family, and the tenacity of love. After a tsunami in India tragically orphans 17-year old Ahalya Ghai and her 15-year-old sister, Sita, the girls are kidnapped and taken to a Mumbai brothel where their nightmare begins. Meanwhile, D.C.-based attorney Thomas Clarke faces marital and career crises. His wife, Priya, returns to her family in India when her grandmother dies, Thomas's demanding legal career and the SIDS death of their infant daughter having taken their toll. Assuming the blame for a headline-grabbing legal debacle, Thomas accepts his firm's offer to take a paid sabbatical and work on a pro bono case overseas. He ends up in Mumbai working for CASE (Coalition Against Sexual Exploitation). When CASE comes to rescue Ahalya, the sisters are separated, and Sita must go to Paris (and later, America) as a drug mule, as her owners try to elude their pursuers. In addition to Ahalya and Sita's timely story, Addison's portrait of Thomas and Priya's tenuous relationship skillfully reveals the difficulty of inter-cultural marriage. The novel successfully explicates the magnitude of the human trafficking business, the complexities of international legalities, and the impact of the Internet's role in this horrifying underworld. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Addison's debut is an international thriller about the shadowy world of child trafficking. During the 2005 tsunami, sheltered Indian teenagers Ahalya and Sita are orphaned and fall through the cracks into the criminal underworld. As they struggle to comprehend their situation, attorney Thomas Clarke, halfway across the globe, faces a personal and professional crisis that sends him off to India to work as a lawyer for an international agency focused on sex trafficking. When a brothel raid nets Ahalya but not her sister, Thomas sets off on a personal quest to find the missing teenager. The slowish start is made up for with plenty of action and travel in the second half of the story, as Thomas closes in on Sita, and the traffickers do their best to keep her hidden. Clarke's quest requires more than a little suspension of disbelief, but it offers an insightful take on the all-too-real problems of international human trafficking.--Moyer, Jessica Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
This chilling, suspenseful, and powerful debut weaves fictional characters into the reality of contemporary slavery. The novel opens on the serene shores of Tamil Nadu, India, as a tsunami rips apart the coastal towns. Two survivors, orphaned sisters who have lost nearly everything, are thrown into the havoc and are immediately sold into the sex trade. The teenage girls are passed from one criminal to the next, experiencing horrors that span the globe. Meanwhile, an American lawyer caught up in a midlife crisis takes a sabbatical to India and helps prosecute human traffickers. His work becomes entwined with the plight of the two sisters, and he sets out to rescue them from the international trade. VERDICT The story is compelling, but the message is greater and will leave an impact on everyone who picks up the book. Readers will mourn the injustices depicted and celebrate the triumphs long after the last page is turned.-Andrea Brooks, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
