A Walk Across the Sun [Hardcover]

Corban Addison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 3, 2012

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 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.

 

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

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. --Jessica Moyer

Review

"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." --John Grisham

 

“Plenty of action and travel …an insightful take on the all-too-real problems of international human trafficking. “--Booklist Online

 

“Chilling, suspenseful, and powerful…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.”-Library Journal

 

"[An] ambitious compassionate debut." --Christian Science Monitor

 

“A pulse-revving novel with a serious message.” --O, The Oprah Magazine

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: SilverOak; First Edition edition (January 3, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402792808
• ISBN-13: 978-1402792809
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (209 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,895 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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 for a story with wings. In the end, the story found him.

In the summer of 2008, Addison's wife gave him an idea that he found irresistible--a novel on the global trade in human beings. Despite the increasing demands of career and family, he embarked upon an odyssey that took him to India and Europe and into the corridors of power in Washington, D.C. In immersing himself in the world of modern-day slavery, he spent time with experts and activists in the field and went undercover into the brothels of Mumbai to meet trafficking victims firsthand.

Out of this journey, A Walk Across the Sun was born. It is a novel that brings together three of Addison's great passions--storytelling, human rights, and the world and its cultures--in a narrative that enlightens while it entertains. Addison is a supporter of international justice causes, including the abolition of modern slavery, and he is committed to broadening this support through the publication of A Walk Across the Sun.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

91 of 96 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving, Redemptive and An Awesome Ride December 19, 2011

By Nathan Hagerty

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

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, but just bought it on Amazon so I could give it away to friends.

Some readers might say that this is 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 throughout. It reads like a thriller, but has the soul of poetic lyricism.

This might be a small spoiler, but I believe knowing this fact, actually, greatly improves the read -- it ends with goodness. It's not a "pat" ending, and all of the twists and turns of the story contribute to an overall effect of depth and reality. So the "happy" ending -- rather than being cliche or saccharine -- comes off as a picture of redemption. Yes, I know I've used that word a few times, but there's no better descriptor for how this book feels. Redemptive.

Thriller fans will be delighted. Those who want a story with poetic beauty will be moved. The (on-the-ground) research makes you feel like you are walking the streets of Mumbai or Paris -- and the characterization is strong.

I can't more highly recommend this book!

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Get It Now! January 4, 2012

By Loving Life

Format:Hardcover

What to say about Corban Addison's first novel, A Walk Across the Sun?

I am not much of a reader of "thrillers," mainly because I find so many of the characters to be one dimensional and the plots way too far-fetched. But Corban Addison combines the mind of a top notch investigator with the soul of a poet. This is one well-written beautifully nuanced book. He uses the power of a fictional world to paint a compelling picture of a monstrous problem that is all but hidden from the view of most Americans. We would frankly rather not think about the exploitation of young girls and would love to be able to relegate it to some remote corner of the third world.

But Addison starts right here in our own country with the abduction of a young girl in broad daylight, an abduction that his main character, Thomas Clarke, is powerless to stop. From there Clarke is drawn into a world of intrigue and danger, into the plight of two sisters kidnapped after losing both parents to a violent tsunami. Compelled to help, Clarke is drawn into the sexual cesspools of Bombay and Paris, and finally, full circle to our own back yard as he strives to rescue the younger sister from the brutal soulless world of sex slavers, dope pushers and pimps. He leaves no stone unturned and by the end of the book I found myself wrung out, the pages of the book tearstained and a rage rising within me that I hope never goes out.

Addison never preaches. Nor does he sensationalize with too much detail of the sexual abuses endured by his characters, although he certainly could have. He just tells one hell of a good story that left this reader wanting to know more about how to help. It's quite simply a wonderful first novel.

Buy, it, read it, pass it on to your friends, talk about it in book clubs. More importantly, read through his afterword for more information on human trafficking. Find a group committed to changing the world and join them. (so, okay Addison doesn't preach--but that doesn't stop this reviewer!)

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A fast-paced thriller with a message December 31, 2011

By Gemjennc

Format:Hardcover

When I think of this book, all the reviewer's cliches apply: fast-paced, suspenseful, page-turning, heart-thumping, stayed-up-late-reading, etc. I'm not typically a fan of thrillers--too often they sacrifice character study for the sake of moving the plot along. But I admire the effort Addison took to give readers a realistic tableaux whether we were reading about the doomed family in Chennai, the hidden neighborhood of Indian restaurants in Paris, or the truck stops in Harrisburg, PA. We care...moreWhen I think of this book, all the reviewer's cliches apply: fast-paced, suspenseful, page-turning, heart-thumping, stayed-up-late-reading, etc. I'm not typically a fan of thrillers--too often they sacrifice character study for the sake of moving the plot along. But I admire the effort Addison took to give readers a realistic tableaux whether we were reading about the doomed family in Chennai, the hidden neighborhood of Indian restaurants in Paris, or the truck stops in Harrisburg, PA. We care about the two orphan girls, Ahalya and Sita Ghai, right from the start because of the details he gives us about their lives before disaster strikes (in fact, I wouldn't have minded a little more of that). Addison reveals to the reader the grim realities of an underworld that we associate with movies but that is actually happening--and not just in places like India and the Philippines. Human trafficking--particularly of young girls--is modern slavery, and Addison does here what artists do best: he gives a human face to the victims that are otherwise invisible in our society.