Overview

In the Shadow of the Red-Light is a hybrid literary work that blurs the boundary between documentary and fiction, cinema and novel, testimony and narrative. Set across the trafficking corridors of South Asia, from poverty-stricken villages in Bangladesh to the brothels of Mumbai, from Nepal's theatre stage to the brutal sale of virgins in India's red-light underworld, from Colombo's fragile dreams to Pakistan's underground pornography rings, the novel traces the interwoven fates of women and children lured, sold, and trapped within the global sex trade. Told through fragmented stories, flashbacks, symbolic images, and polyphonic voices, the novel unfolds like a cinematic drama-documentary. Survivors speak. Silence speaks. Even the dust beneath their feet holds memory. Every scene is drawn from years of fieldwork, interviews, and lived observation, transforming fact into form and testimony into literary witness. At the centre are the women and girls: Anusha, Abhijita, Abhilasha, Moyna, Priyanka, Rokshana, Josna - each shaped by poverty, family betrayal, cultural silence, and systemic violence. Around them orbit traffickers, brothel owners, border agents, clients, and indifferent bystanders. Their voices merge into a painful mosaic that exposes how deeply rooted this trade is in power, patriarchy, and profit. First published in 2014, this newly revised edition returns with sharpened prose, deeper emotional layers, and a renewed urgency. Though set in the early 2000s, before the era of smartphones and social media, the systems it depicts remain terrifyingly relevant. This is not a novel in the conventional sense. It is a refusal. A refusal to silence the unheard. A refusal to look away. A refusal to forget.

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