num_pages: 206
description: Dear Reader:Every now and then we come across a novel that moves us like no other that seems like a miracle of the imagination and that haunts us long after the book is closed. James Levines The Blue Notebook is that kind of book. It is the story of Batuk an Indian girl who is taken to Mumbai from the countryside and sold into prostitution by her father; the blue notebook is her diary in which she recalls her early childhood records her life on the Common Street and makes up beautiful and fantastic tales about a silver-eyed leopard and a poor boy who fells a giant with a single gold coin. How did Levine a British-born doctor at the Mayo Clinic manage to conjure the voice of a fifteen-year-old female Indian prostitute? It all began he told me when as part of his medical research he was interviewing homeless children on a street in Mumbai known as the Street of Cages where child prostitutes work. A young woman writing in a notebook outside her cage caught Levines attention. The powerful image of a young prostitute engaged in the act of writing haunted him and he himself began to write.The Blue Notebook brings us into the life of a young woman for whom stories are not just entertainment but a means of survival. Even as the novel humanizes and addresses the devastating global issue of child prostitution it also delivers an inspiring message about the uplifting power of words and readinga message that is so important to hold on to especially in difficult times. Dr. Levine is donating all his U.S. proceeds from this book to help exploited children. Batuks story can make a difference.SincerelyCelina SpiegelPublisher
language: English
title: The Blue Notebook
publisher: Spiegel & Grau