A GIRL WITHIN A GIRL WITHIN A GIRL

A trafficked woman wrestles with her identity amid her traumatic upbringing.

Maya Augustina is a dental hygienist and married mother of two boys in Atlanta when she gets a communication from her past—a letter from her sister, Roshini, explaining that their mother has died from breast cancer, Roshini has it, too, and that Maya should get checked for the gene. This sends Maya into a tailspin—and not just for the obvious reasons. Roshini’s letter is addressed to Sunny, a name Maya hasn’t heard in decades, and includes the line “I never believe the lies about you.” On that intriguing note, the reader is transported back to Maya’s childhood in 1985 Guyana. Sunita “Sunny” Kissoon is her sister’s protector, enjoys playing in the cane fields, and adores her snooty friend’s Barbie dolls. Then Sunny’s family sends her to the United States posing as Neena Das, a dead girl whose parents had already arranged to emigrate, and whom she eerily resembles. She could pay off her passage by working for the Dases, and then she could start sending money home, her father says. Sunny is filled with equal parts excitement and dread. For Sunny to safely live in the U.S., she must leave all parts of herself behind, including her name, and fully become Neena. In Miami, she’s forced to work all day as a maid and farm laborer while living with her quasi–foster parents, the real Neena’s callous and unloving mother, Lila, and father, Prem, whose cruelty—immediately suspected by the reader—is slowly revealed to Neena. Neena, under various pseudonyms that she takes on at different life stages, must deal with the run-of-the-mill trials of adolescence, contend with untold trauma, and wrestle with who she is and where she belongs. And while Reddy puts much more care into developing her character’s early years than her adult ones, the story is too important and gripping to put down.

A coming-of-age story that is at once shocking and necessary.