NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR! In the spirit of Khaled Hosseini, Nadia Hashimi and Shilpi Somaya Gowda comes this powerful debut from a talented new voice--a sweeping, emotional journey of two childhood friends in Mumbai, India, whose lives converge only to change forever one fateful night. India, 1986: Mukta, a ten-year-old village girl from the lower caste Yellama cult has come of age and must fulfill her destiny of becoming a temple prostitute, as her mother and grandmother did before her. In an attempt to escape her fate, Mukta is sent to be a house girl for an upper-middle class family in Mumbai. There she discovers a friend in the daughter of the family, high spirited eight-year-old Tara, who helps her recover from the wounds of her past. Tara introduces Mukta to an entirely different world--one of ice cream, reading, and a friendship that soon becomes a sisterhood. But one night in 1993, Mukta is kidnapped from Tara's family home and disappears. Shortly thereafter, Tara and her father move to America. A new life in Los Angeles awaits them but Tara never recovers from the loss of her best friend, or stops wondering if she was somehow responsible for Mukta's abduction. Eleven years later, Tara, now an adult, returns to India determined to find Mukta. As her search takes her into the brutal underground world of human trafficking, Tara begins to uncover long-buried secrets in her own family that might explain what happened to Mukta--and why she came to live with Tara's family in the first place. Moving from a traditional Indian village to the bustling modern metropolis of Mumbai, to Los Angeles and back again, this is a heartbreaking and beautiful portrait of an unlikely friendship--a story of love, betrayal, and, ultimately, redemption. Set in Mumbai, India, this memorable novel is alternately narrated by two girls from different castes who become friends. Tara is from a solid, middle-class, two-parent home and afforded many privileges, while Mukta is the daughter of a sex worker and an absent father. The girls' lives intertwine when Tara's father, who helps orphaned children, brings Mukta home to work as a servant rather than as a temple prostitute. As the book moves back and forth through time, readers learn that Mukta has been kidnapped from her adopted home and Tara feels responsible. Tara returns to India as an adult to try to find Mukta and ease her own guilt. Readers will relate to the bond between the protagonists and sympathize with Mukta's situation. Teens who wish to learn more about the grim reality of life in brothels should also seek out S.J. Laidlaw's Fifteen Lanes. VERDICT Fans of Carol Rifka Brunt's Tell the Wolves I'm Home and other stories of unlikely friendship will appreciate this eye-opening, beautifully written tale of the dark side of tradition.—Sherry J. Mills Hazelwood East High School, St. Louis "Gut-wrenching and timeless. The relentless female characters give representation to millions of voiceless women, and display oceans of resilience and strength." - BOOKLIST "A haunting debut...that brings the brutal realities of modern India into focus."- KIRKUS REVIEWS ( A Kirkus Reviews' BEST BOOKS) " In the hands of a lesser writer, this story would be too massive and complex as both Tara and Mukta shift their narratives between the past and present, but under Trasi's deft hand a satisfying intersection of the stories emerges, with an emotional tone that resonates after the final page is turned. The social issues of contemporary India, including poverty and women's rights, provide a strong backdrop." LIBRARY JOURNAL "Finely woven threads of friendship, womanhood, and hope sustain Trasi's striking debut novel.....Grounded in Trasi's own childhood in Mumbai, this is a graceful, bittersweet novel of tragedy and tradition." - PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY "Amita Trasi's personal, up-close telling of Mukta's story exposes the harsh realities of prostitution in India. The friends' narratives appear side-by-side, and as the book progresses it becomes more about the power of women's relationships than the oppression of women in India." - NPR FROM A TALENTED NEW VOICE COMES A SWEEPING, EMOTIONAL JOURNEY OF TWO CHILDHOOD FRIENDS IN MUMBAI, INDIA, WHOSE LIVES CONVERGE ONLY TO CHANGE FOREVER ONE FATEFUL NIGHT . . . India, 1986: Mukta, a ten-year-old village girl from the lower-caste Yellama cult has come of age and must fulfill her destiny of becoming a temple prostitute, as her mother and grandmother did before her. In an attempt to escape her fate, Mukta is sent to be a house girl for an upper-middle-class family in Mumbai. There she discovers a friend in the daughter of the family, high-spirited eight-year-old Tara, who helps her recover from the wounds of her past. Tara introduces Mukta to an entirely different world, and a friendship that soon becomes a sisterhood.  But one night in 1993, Mukta is kidnapped from Tara’s family home and disappears. Shortly thereafte