Sold: What will it take to find freedom

Published 31st January 2023

• By Sue Barrow

‘Compulsively readable, harrowing yet hopeful…shines a fierce light into the shadows of child trafficking.’ THE GUARDIAN

Fifteen-year-old Roza thinks she’s leaving Albania for better things in the UK. But her dad has sold her as a slave.

Other people consider her their property and treat her as such. They work her hard, beating and starving her, refusing to let her go out. But she must tell people they are her parents. When Roza runs to the police, her captors show them a forged birth certificate. She is dismissed as attention-seeking and returned to them for punishment.

Before Roza left Albania, her teacher told her about a man she could go to for help if she ever needed it, but she was too excited to pay attention. Now, she can’t remember his name or address. He is somewhere in North London, but that’s a huge place.

She doesn’t think life can get much worse…until she tries to escape.

Every year, an estimated 300,000 children worldwide are enslaved by human traffickers. SOLD is one of the first novels to explore this.

It should appeal to fans of Miriam Halahmy, Anne Cassidy, and Laurie Halse Anderson.