Fifteen Lanes

by S.J. Laidlaw

Overview

A heartbreaking novel that explores the lives and relationship of two very different girls — a resilient Indian girl and a troubled Canadian teen — set in the fifteen lanes that comprise Mumbai's red light district.

Eleven-year-old Noor, who lives in a Mumbai brothel with her mother and siblings, is grateful for the opportunity to go to school, hoping it will give her a chance to escape her fate of following in her mother's footsteps and being sold into the sex trade. Although she is resilient, capable and wise beyond her years, her life as the eldest daughter of a sex worker is full of struggle and challenge.
Living in the same city is Grace, the Canadian teenage daughter of a CEO of one of the largest international banks in India. A child of privilege, Grace faces her own torments when she is cyber-bullied.
Told in alternating voices, Fifteen Lanes exposes readers to a shocking and captivating world. When Noor and Grace eventually meet at an NGO support center for women and children, they make a connection that changes their lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780735264779
Publisher:	Tundra Book Group
Publication date:	12/18/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	4.80(w) x 7.30(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Born in Philadelphia, S.J. LAIDLAW spent most of her childhood in Toronto. After completing an undergraduate degree in English, she ventured to Africa as a volunteer teacher. There she discovered that her students needed as much guidance and support outside the classroom as in it, so after three years, she returned to Canada to complete a graduate degree in clinical social work. Since then, she has worked as a counselor in many countries and led workshops for parents and educators on raising and working with third-culture children. Her first book, An Infidel in Paradise, won the IODE Violet Downey Book Award, and her second book, The Voice inside My Head, was chosen as a 2015 CLA Young Adult Book Honour Book and has been shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Award (winner to be announced). When she is not writing, S.J. Laidlaw currently volunteers at a night shelter for the children of sex workers in Mumbai. Visit her website at www.sjlaidlaw.com.

Editorial Reviews

Laidlaw brings Kamathipura, a poor neighborhood in Mumbai, to life with her detailed prose. The author handles the delicate subject matter with care, balancing the desperate living conditions with glimpses of Noor's joys and aspirations." - Kirkus Reviews

 
“Readers will love the complexity and authenticity of this story, even if they know very little about the lives of sex workers in India. The protagonists’ voices make the story believable and unputdownable. Laidlaw’s secondary characters—the teens’ friends, relatives, and enemies—are just as fleshed out as Noor and Grace themselves. There is no easy happy ending for the girls, but their story shows the strength and beauty of the human spirit in a way that young adults will appreciate.” - School Library Journal

 
“.... A poignant story of two girls who share a city but lead vastly different lives .... chilling in its authenticity .... This is not an easy novel to read, but it’s an important one .... Kudos to Laidlaw for capturing the essence of Mumbai’s underbelly with such empathy and accuracy .... Fifteen Lanes showcases the strength of the human spirit in the most adverse of circumstances.” - Quill & Quire


“Laidlaw doesn’t flinch from the horrifying details of the desperate and dangerous lives of Mumbai’s poorest women. Noor’s strength and determination are inspiring .... [Grace’s] voice and suffering ring with authenticity. This heartbreaking and hopeful novel will appeal to readers of gripping contemporary stories such as Patricia McCormick’s Sold (2006) and E.R. Frank’s Dime (2015).” - Starred Review, Booklist

From the Publisher

2016-02-17
Noor has called a brothel home all her life. The sex workers are her family, and as a devadasi, she is destined to follow in her mother's footsteps. Her only respite is school. There, she excels in her studies and blossoms among her classmates. But it is a new friend—a foreigner—who helps her escape her old life forever. Laidlaw brings Kamathipura, a poor neighborhood in Mumbai, to life with her detailed prose. The author handles the delicate subject matter with care, balancing the desperate living conditions with glimpses of Noor's joys and aspirations. Grace, a white expat student at an elite private school, struggles with the departure of her university-age brother and best friend. She meets Noor during her school-mandated community service, which brings their storylines together. The inclusion of Grace as a second narrator is distracting since the focus of the book is wholly on Noor's journey. Grace's ordeal is compelling in its own right and would have been better served in a separate book; instead it is subsumed under the wider arc of Noor's trials and seems trivial by contrast. The alternating points of view force readers to compare the two girls, making it easy to reduce Noor to her poverty and Grace to her privilege. Full of complicated characters from across Mumbai's social classes, the novel challenges readers' expectations. (author's note) (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews