THE BLUE NOTEBOOK
by James A. Levine
The Blue Notebook is brutal to read, and yet I am grateful for the window it gave me into a world I knew nothing about. Levine has spent his life working with NGOs and non-profits all over the world to study and help children in extreme poverty. This is his first novel inspired by one moment in his travels.
Batuk is a young girl from a farming community who now works as a sex slave in the city of Mumbai. Levine includes several diaries Batuk kept over the course of a year, but also gives her backstory including the harrowing journey that brought her to her present circumstances.
Just the idea of child sex slavery is enough to upset me, but the details of Batuk’s story are excruciating. What made me continue through to the end however was the beauty of her storytelling. Somehow this little girl sees beauty and hope in her surroundings, in her friends and in her imagination. I can’t say I would recommend this book to everyone, but if you are intrigued, it is incredibly well written, just so brutal. (Lily)
