All copies of this title, including those transferred to portable devices and other media, must be deleted/destroyed at the end of the lending period.
Description
Born in a village deep in the Cambodian forest, Somaly Mam was sold into sexual slavery by her grandfather when she was twelve years old. For the next decade she was shuttled through the brothels that make up the sprawling sex trade of Southeast Asia. Trapped in this dangerous and desperate world, she suffered the brutality and horrors of human trafficking -- rape, torture, deprivation - until she managed to escape with the help of a French aid worker. Emboldened by her newfound freedom, education, and security, Somaly blossomed but remained haunted by the girls in the brothels she left behind.
Written in exquisite, spare, unflinching prose, The Road of Lost Innocence recounts the experiences of her early life and tells the story of her awakening as an activist and her harrowing and brave fight against the powerful and corrupt forces that steal the lives of these girls. She has orchestrated raids on brothels and rescued sex workers, some as young as five and six; she has built shelters, started schools, and founded an organization that has so far saved more than four thousand women and children in Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos. Her memoir will leave you awestruck by her tenacity and courage and will renew your faith in the power of an individual to bring about change.
Somaly Mam was an illiterate, impoverished, and deferential Cambodian orphan who was no more than 12 when she was forced into prostitution. Remarkably, she overcame beatings, rapes, and a life of deprivation to save thousands of girls from her own fate and worse. Tanya Eby Sirois does a first-rate job capturing the author's quiet but powerful essence in this inspiring memoir, which is aided by a clear emotional connection between narrator and subject. The narration is soft- spoken and compassionate, but potent, growing in strength as Somaly Mam finds an outlet for her rage. Sirois keeps her voice light and slightly breathy, evoking a sensitive Cambodian girl who, through incredible hardship and determination, grows into an international champion for the fight against child prostitution and slavery. R.M. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
About the Author
Somaly Mam is the cofounder of AFESIP (Acting for Women in Distressing Situations) in Europe and The Somaly Mam Foundation in the United States, whose goal is to save and socially reintegrate victims of sexual slavery in Southeast Asia. She was named Glamour's Woman of the Year in 2006. She lives in Cambodia and France.
