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50th out of 764 books
—
831 voters
A Walk Across the Sun
by
Corban Addison (Goodreads Author)
Corban Addison leads readers on a chilling, eye-opening journey into Mumbai's seedy underworld--and the nightmare of two orphaned girls swept into the international sex trade.
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 th...more
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 th...more
Hardcover, 371 pages
Published
January 3rd 2012
by SilverOak
(first published 2011)
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At the end, great books give us a feeling of closure, beauty, and redemption. Corbin Addison has triumphed by doing that with his first novel, a thriller about a difficult-to-read subject - human trafficking.
The novel vacillates between the stories of Ahalya and Sita, sisters who are left orphaned and homeless by a tsunami on the coast of India, and Thomas Clark, a lawyer in Washington D.C facing a personal and professional crisis. As Thomas makes fateful decisions to bring meaning to his life,...more
The novel vacillates between the stories of Ahalya and Sita, sisters who are left orphaned and homeless by a tsunami on the coast of India, and Thomas Clark, a lawyer in Washington D.C facing a personal and professional crisis. As Thomas makes fateful decisions to bring meaning to his life,...more
Sep 30, 2012
Simay
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
blogtour,
contemporary
2. blog turumuzda Güneşin Kızları'nı okuduk. Benim yazımı buradan inceleyebilirsiniz: http://zimlicious.blogspot.com/2012/0... Kitap ve yazarla ilgili bilgiler ve kitap yorumları için tura katılan diğer blog'lara da uğramayı unutmayın!
A Walk Across the Sun is a great story of success, failure, fear and courage. There are many elements that makes this novel worth the read.
It is very hard to choose the words to praise a novel with such a heavy and delicate subject, but what I can say is this novel had what it takes to keep me reading until the last page.
A walk Across the Sun kept me on edge most of the time. I thought: what is going to happen next? Is she going to make it? Will they succeed? Sometimes, I jumped in excitement or...more
It is very hard to choose the words to praise a novel with such a heavy and delicate subject, but what I can say is this novel had what it takes to keep me reading until the last page.
A walk Across the Sun kept me on edge most of the time. I thought: what is going to happen next? Is she going to make it? Will they succeed? Sometimes, I jumped in excitement or...more
14 likes · like · see review
This book was AMAZING!! Although "A Walk Across the Sun" is fictional, human trafficking is all too real. This could be easily be an unfortunate young girl's story. This book really opened my eyes to the "hidden world of sexual violence, where the most valuable prize is the innocence of a child". I would highly recommend it to everyone. This is truly a groundbreaking debut novel!
Addison's story is really about how people from totally different worlds can find their lives intersecting at a crucial moment under brutal circumstances. The first story follows two Indian sisters (Ahalya and Sita) who, after being orphaned by a tsunami, are trafficked into the Mumbai sex trade. Addison carefully fills their stories with equal measures of cruelty and resilience, creating two young heroines who act together as the beating heart of the book. The second story follows a burnt-out D...more
This book should have worked but it didn't for me. I was interested in the subject matter - people trafficking but the way the story was told seemed so cold and documentary-like that I couldn't get emotionally involved. I honestly expected to read at the end - that this was a real story, this had actually happened - but although it does happen and that's tragic, this story was made up. Whether it's because the author is a lawyer and used to writing in a different style - I don't know but the pro...more
7 likes · like · see review
An absolutely amazing book. I'll write a longer review when I have some time on my hand. But for now, I'll take the liberty of sharing what I wrote on the writer's Facebook wall and his reply.
Ajay Pradhan
AWATS... a beautifully written story, with delicate narrative full of poetic imagination and a gripping message. To say that I absolutely loved this debut novel is probably an understatement. I bought the book last week at YVR airport in Vancouver and I finished reading it today. I couldn't help...more
Ajay Pradhan
AWATS... a beautifully written story, with delicate narrative full of poetic imagination and a gripping message. To say that I absolutely loved this debut novel is probably an understatement. I bought the book last week at YVR airport in Vancouver and I finished reading it today. I couldn't help...more
I listened to this as an audio book, so this might not be a fair review or rating. I think that if I had been reading it, rather than listening to it, it might have earned that fourth star. However, I can only rate on what I read (or hear, as the case may be).
So, as an audio book, this was a mixed bag, due in part to the person reading and the silly voices that she affected. Certainly, there was some very strong writing. The section where the young girl, Sita, had to swallow 30 condoms filled wi...more
So, as an audio book, this was a mixed bag, due in part to the person reading and the silly voices that she affected. Certainly, there was some very strong writing. The section where the young girl, Sita, had to swallow 30 condoms filled wi...more
1 like · like · see review
An interesting, captivating book! The setting is in Washington DC,and in Bombay with some Paris and some North east in US throw in. My familiarity with all these regions made it all the more exciting for me when Addison referred to places that I knew or had heard of. The story begins with Thomas, a lawyer, having a high-paced career and working ina firm and working his way to becoming a judge some day like his father. He is married to Priya, and indian girl, who had married Thomas against her pa...more
Corban Addison touches this sensitive topic beautifully. Human trafficking was abolished 200 years ago under the heading of slave trading, but is still so much rampant worldwide and treated with "kid gloves" for political reasons. I became interested in this topic due to the fact that South Africa finally has stepped up and instituted a Bill.
A walk across the sun is about two teenage sisters, Ahalya and Sita, who were left orphaned after a tsunami hit their town in India. The sisters try to get
...more
This is a story about the international sex-slave trade that is present, but most people either ignore or do not realize the prevalence about it. Kudos for people like Corban Addison who keeps this alive in our minds because if we forget this is happening around us, we forget those poor, innocent children who are stolen from their homes and lives for other people's sexual appetites.
Mr. Addison weaves a fictional, but believable tale of Sita and Ahalya who lead an almost idealistic life up until...more
Mr. Addison weaves a fictional, but believable tale of Sita and Ahalya who lead an almost idealistic life up until...more
Take A Walk Across the Sun for what it is - a fast-paced thriller about a privileged lawyer who lands in Mumbai, India, and who gradually embraces his work with CASE - the Coalition Against Sexual Exploitation, a group fighting the trafficking of human beings, especially children, for sex.
A Walk also tells the story of sisters Ahalya and Sita, 15 and 17, who, after a tsunami devastates their community, are kidnapped as they try to make their way to their convent school.
This plot point bugged m...more
A Walk also tells the story of sisters Ahalya and Sita, 15 and 17, who, after a tsunami devastates their community, are kidnapped as they try to make their way to their convent school.
This plot point bugged m...more
A Walk Across the Sun is one of those amazing books that allow us as privileged, safe Americans to become emotionally involved in issues that do not often personally affect us. One approach is the non-fiction description like Tracy Kidder's Mountains Beyond Mountains. Though there are a few such good non-fiction books out there (like that one) I think that very well-written fiction does a much better job since it causes us to become invested in the the characters from almost a first-person persp...more
This is Corban Addison's first novel. Thomas Clarke is a high-paid lawyer with one of the best law firms. In law school, he met an Indian woman, Priya, a brilliant lawyer in her own right. Neither family was thrilled about them marrying each other due to cultural differences, but marry they did, and had a beautiful baby. When their infant died of SIDS, their lives were turned upside down. Priya, unable to handle her depression, flew back to her family in India. Thomas, unable to focus as well in...more
This is a really interesting book about the international sex trade. While the subject at hand truly is horrific, the author has managed to unfold it in a manner that allows the reader to absorb the chilling realities of it. We see the scenarios play out through two teenage girls swept into the sex trade and one man, in particular, who is trying make a difference and save them. The peripheral characters all contribute in interesting ways so that the reader understands all the differing viewpoint...more
In A WALK ACROSS THE SUN you meet Ahalya and her sister Sita who were saved, if you can call it saved, from the terrors of the tsunami that occurred in India. Their entire family perished in the tsunami, and these two innocent girls were kidnapped, bought, and forced into a brothel in India.
Meanwhile on the other side of the world, Thomas Clarke, an attorney in Washington D.C., takes on a position in India to try to find and arrest the sex traffic offenders.
You will follow the horrors of a life...more
Meanwhile on the other side of the world, Thomas Clarke, an attorney in Washington D.C., takes on a position in India to try to find and arrest the sex traffic offenders.
You will follow the horrors of a life...more
Feb 28, 2012
Bonnie Brody
added it
A Walk Across the Sun is not a book for the faint of heart. It is a book about horrific themes - child trafficking for prostitution, drug running, and kidnapping. It takes place primarily in Bombay and in the U.S. but the trafficking that this story is about occurs world-wide.
The story opens with a lawyer witnessing the kidnapping of a young girl in a public park. It haunts him. Thomas Clarke works for a huge and prestigious law firm in D.C. and has been spending the last several months working...more
The story opens with a lawyer witnessing the kidnapping of a young girl in a public park. It haunts him. Thomas Clarke works for a huge and prestigious law firm in D.C. and has been spending the last several months working...more
Corban Addison has done something interesting here in the creation of a suspenseful and engaging look at the international sex trade that isn't likely to offend the sensibilities of protected westerners. He has a good handle on his plotting, and his prose is workmanlike. Think John Grisham. (Maybe the glowing recommendation by Grisham is why that comes to mind.) The book moved along at such a quick clip that I was done before I knew it.
I liked the way he handled the lawyer's backstory (comforta...more
I liked the way he handled the lawyer's backstory (comforta...more
Story Description:
Corban Addison leads readers on a chilling, eye-opening journey into Mumbai's seedy underworld--and the nightmare of two orphaned girls swept into the international sex trade.
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 i...more
Corban Addison leads readers on a chilling, eye-opening journey into Mumbai's seedy underworld--and the nightmare of two orphaned girls swept into the international sex trade.
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 i...more
Those of us not familiar with the sex trade, me being one of those, usually think of it as happening “someplace else”. The reality is that it happens all over the world, including right here in the United States. Children are sold for drugs, prostitution, kidnapped right off of the street. Before you go any further in this review you need to know that this is not a feel good topic. It is repulsive and hard to read.
We start off the story with two innocent girls whose life is decimated due to a ts...more
We start off the story with two innocent girls whose life is decimated due to a ts...more
A Walk Across the Sun is the debut novel of Corban Addison. When I first learned of this book, the topic caught my attention as I've seen a number of documentaries on the the issue of human trafficking. I also recently read about this topic in the Fall edition of Columbia Magazine published by Columbia University.
Once I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down. And when I had to put it down, I couldn't wait to get back to it! The reader is sucked right into the incredibly sad misfortun...more
Once I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down. And when I had to put it down, I couldn't wait to get back to it! The reader is sucked right into the incredibly sad misfortun...more
It's the sign of an incredible book that when it finishes, you have that butterflies-in-your-stomach feeling of closure, redemption and beauty. And that's what happens when you read this book. I read this as an ARC provided by the publishing company.
Other reviewers have mentioned that it's a "hard book to read", and that's true--at first. Coming face-to-face with the gritty realities of the horrendous trade in young girls is difficult. But Addison deftly weaves a tale of beauty and redemption th...more
Other reviewers have mentioned that it's a "hard book to read", and that's true--at first. Coming face-to-face with the gritty realities of the horrendous trade in young girls is difficult. But Addison deftly weaves a tale of beauty and redemption th...more
10 likes · like · see review
A Walk Across The Sun by Corban Addison
Here’s a well-written thriller that opens the reader's eyes to the ugly reality and horrors of modern-day slavery. I would say it’s probably one of those reads I might come across once in a while that keeps me thinking about the story long after I finish the book. The characters are believable…that’s important for any book, but especially for this type of realistic thriller.
The lives and innocence of middle-class, Indian, teens Ahalya and Sita Ghai are turn...more
Here’s a well-written thriller that opens the reader's eyes to the ugly reality and horrors of modern-day slavery. I would say it’s probably one of those reads I might come across once in a while that keeps me thinking about the story long after I finish the book. The characters are believable…that’s important for any book, but especially for this type of realistic thriller.
The lives and innocence of middle-class, Indian, teens Ahalya and Sita Ghai are turn...more
17-year old Ahalya and 15-year old Sita lived a happy upper-middle class life with their parents in Chennai, India until a tsunami left them orphaned and homeless. Suddenly, they find themselves plunged into the dark and sinister world of human trafficking. Even worse, the two sisters become separated from each other. Half a world away in Washington, D.C., attorney Thomas Clarke finds himself with the opportunity to go to Mumbai for a year of pro-bono work. When his world collides with the one t...more
Two teenage sisters (Ahalya, 17, and Sita, 15) are orphaned after a tsunami hits their Indian town. The sisters try to head back to school but are kidnapped and sold into the sex trade. Meanwhile, DC lawyer Thomas Clarke sees his life unraveling. His wife left him after their baby daughter died, and it's impacting his work. After seeing a young girl kidnapped and learning she may also have been sold into the sex trade, he agrees to spend a year working for a group that prosecutes sex traffickers...more
A Walk Across the Sun is hands down one of the best books I have ever read. Corbin Addison has written a book full of such emotionality, faith and hope that I am finding it difficult to find the words to share this book. The main characters of Sita and Ahalya show grace under pressure even seemingly when all hope is irredeemable. A tsunami wiped out their home and their family. As they were walking toward a place to be safe – their life was changed forever. They were kidnapped and became victims...more
This book was an incredible read!
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,...more
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,...more
I had randomly got this book because I wanted to use up the rest of my gift card and the ebook was under 5$...it was a surprising find! I'd probably give it something like 3.5 stars.
The book goes through the confluence of events that cause the lives of two sisters orphaned by the Boxing Day tsunami, and an American lawyer to become intertwined. That's basically the blurb from the back of the book, and the writing wastes no time getting to the meat of the story, at least on the girls' part. The...more
The book goes through the confluence of events that cause the lives of two sisters orphaned by the Boxing Day tsunami, and an American lawyer to become intertwined. That's basically the blurb from the back of the book, and the writing wastes no time getting to the meat of the story, at least on the girls' part. The...more
Addison's debut novel is a tour de force combining an engrossing story with authentic details about a horrific human plague and its presence on three continents. The book impresses with its authentic attention to cultural detail in India, Paris and America while at the same time carrying one along in the suspense of the story, a very human story of two girls.
It begins with a tsunami raging through the coastal home in India of 17 year-old Ahalya and her 15 year-old sister. Left orphans, they see...more
It begins with a tsunami raging through the coastal home in India of 17 year-old Ahalya and her 15 year-old sister. Left orphans, they see...more
I finished reading this last night and although I would like to give it 5 stars,I am giving it 4 because in some parts the story felt...dry. That said Corban Addison definitely did his research before writing this book. It's a compelling narrative of the abduction of 2 sisters and their subsequent sale into modern day slavery. It's a story that delves deep into the criminal underworld to expose what the victims of human trafficking endure. They are exploited as sex slaves, pushed into prostituti...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goodreads Choice ...: A Walk Across the Sun BR - begins September 1st, 2013 | 3 | 17 | May 13, 2013 01:19pm | |
| similarly enjoyable books | 5 | 58 | May 07, 2013 11:23am | |
| Bosom Book Buddies: A Walk Across the Sun, by Corban Addison | 3 | 6 | Mar 09, 2013 06:47pm | |
| Readers Delight: July 2012 - A Walk Across The Sun | 3 | 23 | Aug 18, 2012 03:43pm | |
| It exceeded my expectations! | 5 | 33 | Aug 15, 2012 02:15pm | |
| India's business center, Mumbai. | 1 | 26 | Feb 01, 2012 03:47am |
Corban Addison holds degrees in law and engineering from the University of Virginia and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He began to experiment with writing at the age of fifteen, about the same time he developed an interest in international travel. His early works were mostly essays, reflections and travelogues, but his true love was fiction. For eight years he searched f...more
More about Corban Addison...
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“Traffickers will stop when men stop buying women”
—
19 people liked it
“In places like this, it's hard to imagine that the world can be so ugly,' Thomas said.
'This is how it was meant to be,' Priya replied. 'The ugliness is our own fault.”
—
4 people liked it
More quotes…
'This is how it was meant to be,' Priya replied. 'The ugliness is our own fault.”
May 10, 2012 12:11pm