Batuk is a fifteen-year-old Indian prostitute. She was sold into prostitution by her father at only nine years old, after a less than idyllic, but still relatively happy childhood. Batuk’s path to prostitution is devastating, more so what she has to endure each and every day at the hands of strange men, but writing is her salvation. She writes about her life, makes up stories, and in general endures far beyond what any child should ever have to.

It’s incredibly hard to write about this book. Child prostitution is a difficult and horrible subject. Obviously, it should never happen and it is completely wrong. But it does happen, and James Levine has tried to imagine what that life would be like for a little girl. Batuk has been betrayed by everyone and endures the worst kind of humiliation each day of her life, yet she is portrayed as a hopeful child, still vivacious, making the best of a bad situation whenever she can. The story is even more moving because the reader knows that there are girls like this out there, and Batuk feels real.

It is Batuk herself that is the novel’s greatest triumph. It’s difficult to believe that this girl was written by a man because she does feel genuine in every way. She tries not to think about what is happening to her even as her words give it devastating clarity. She puts up a facade and retains hope even though the reader can sense her unhappiness in nearly every line. She does what she must to make the experience bearable while using the rest of her scarce free time to write stories and remember her past. It would be impossible not to feel for her and wish she could escape this life and go back to the countryside where she was at least an innocent.

It’s difficult to say that I liked this book, because it’s so difficult to read. It’s short, but it’s so moving and heartrending. I think it’s important to read, however, if only so we’re forced to confront ourselves with the horrid reality of what might be for real young girls. The author interviewed child prostitutes and based his book on their stories. It’s fiction like this that inspires us to make a difference, and for that reason I do recommend The Blue Notebook. ( )

This is the relentlessly grim, sexually violent story of a child prostitute's miserable existence in Mumbai. The author interviewed homeless children in Mumbai and was inspired to write this story when he saw a young prostitute sitting outside her cage writing. Although well written, the story is horrific and will only be compelling for those with a sturdy constitution. The best bit: all U.S. proceeds are donated to help exploited children. ( )

Batuk is a fifteen-year-old girl living in a brothel on Common Street in Mumbai, India. The bright points in her life are her best friend, Puneet, a male prostitute living a few “nests” down from her in the same brothel, and a notebook which she keeps hidden away in a slit in her thin mattress. Her vivid imagination and knack for storytelling lead her to paint a world of cheerful descriptions of the ragged and decrepit room that she describes as an elaborately painted and decorated nest or cage and the sexual acts that she is forced to endure is misleadingly called making sweet cakes. Over the course of the novel Batuk tells the story of how she was sold by her father into prostitution as a nine-year-old to pay off unspecified family debts.

The proprietor of the brothel, Mamaki Briilla, drops a pencil and instead of returning it Batuk steals and hides it so that she can recount her early life, and the last day that she saw the family and the father she still misses after six years. Batuk is an emerging beauty and after one of her “customers” noticing this suggest her for a position outside the brothel walls, but is she better off facing a new situation or staying with the horror that she already knows?

James Levine does an amazing job getting us into the head of Batuk. Though she has grown up with a family and has had to face the betrayal of those closest to her she tries to make the best of it and always see the beauty in the life despite her horrific circumstances. Batuk weaves a world of beauty and exquisite stories out of the every day tragedy that is her life. She creates a world that you want to believe in for her sake though it makes the crushing reality that she faces that much more difficult and painful to witness. The subject matter is dark and movingly in contrast to the light and engaging way that Batuk presents her narrative. It’s short at a mere 200 pages but stunningly rendered. There’s really not much to be said other than, “Read this book.” ( )

Levine's first novel is told from the perspective of Batuk, a fifteen-year-old prostitute in Mumbai. Unlike most girls in her position, Batuk has learned to read and write, and finds solace and enjoyment in keeping a diary. Throughout the novel, she chronicles memories of the family who gave her away, the brutality she faces from her employers and clients, as well some of the happier moments she shares with her friends, namely Puneet. Puneet is a young male prostitute who receives more clients than his female counterparts, and possibly even crueler treatment.

The story can become graphic as Batuk offers details about her job and the violence she faces from those who exercise their power over her through beatings and rape. The author, James A. Levine, is a medical doctor who was inspired to write the novel after interviewing homeless children in Mumbai, including a prostitute he saw writing in a notebook, as part of his work for the Mayo Clinic. Nevertheless, Batuk seems believable, at least in so far as Levine captures the voice of a young, imaginative and intelligent girl who is suddenly forced into a harsh, adult world. When one of Batuk's clients asks why she writes, she responds, "I like to see my thoughts because otherwise they are invisible." It's a powerful statement, knowing that Batuk's thoughts are irrelevant to most people in her life, and that her journal is her only refuge. There is the sense, however, that Levine hopes to give a voice to the many real children who share Batuk's fate. (And all of his US royalties from the book are donated to the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children.) ( )

A profound book which was so difficult to read. India at its worst. Having visited the country and seen the beggars on the street, I feel sick at the numbers I ignored. Amazing a man can create the voice of a young girl and a prostitute.