Sold
Sold Out: History of Modern Slavery -or Sold: Story of Modern day Slavery, by its original English title, is a biography written by British author Zana Muhsen and ghostwriter Andrew Crofts. The work was published for the first time in 1991. Later, it was translated into Spanish by Cecilia M. Riva and marketed by the Seix Barral publishing house.
The launch of this title caused a massive stir, not only at the sales level, but also thanks to a discussion about international law and human resources. The book tells the story of Zana Muhsen and her sister Nadia, who were sold by their father and taken to Yemen to get married. with men they didn't know. Years later, the protagonist and author confesses her terrible experience.
Synopsis of Sold
The euphemism for a dream vacation
Zana Muhsen was born and raised in Birmingham, city of London, England. She first saw the light in 1965, when she was given birth to by her mother, Miriam Ali, and received by his father, Muthanna Muhsen. When you turn 15 years old, the latter He insisted that he go to see Yemen, his homeland. He described his country as an oasis in the middle of the desert covered by golden sand and exotic trees. Zana only knew London, and the idea of the trip seemed exciting.
The young woman embarked on her adventure with Abdul Khada, a friend of Muthanna. She was told that Nadia would arrive days later, so she didn't worry. However, The trip did not start as expected. They lived an endless journey through Damascus, and it took them four long hours to reach Maqbanah, a place so unattractive that the protagonist dozed almost the entire journey. Upon arrival, they told him that it had been sold for around €1.500.
The initial impact on the sale of Zana Muhsen
Zana claims that she knew absolutely nothing about her father's decision to marry her off without her consent. The girl, a full-fledged Englishwoman, was distraught when Abdul Khada told her that she would be the wife of his teenage son, a sickly 14-year-old boy named Abdullah. The news left her in a deep state of shock, but by the time she managed to understand her situation a little more, she was already married and living with her buyer in Hockail, a faded village of semi-detached houses on the top of a hill. mountain.
A similar fate to Zana's awaited her sister Nadia, who arrived shortly after, although in a different town. The girls had to face everything that was to come alone. The protagonist tells how she was sexually abused repeatedly by her supposed husband. Her in-laws didn't treat her well either, she says: they beat her, they forced her to work until you drop and they urged her to have as many children as possible.
Eight years of torture
Zana Muhsen's first-person narration is of unparalleled rawness. His stories about how he had to go in search of water from a well for lack of ordinary mineral, or the way in which he had to submit to marital obligations and the dictates of his in-laws for eight years are heartbreaking.
In the middle of that period the protagonist manages to communicate with her mother, who undertakes a legal battle to recover his daughters from the foreign country. However, Yemen announced that both Zana and Nadia were married to Yemeni husbands, that they both had children originally from the Arab country and that it was impossible to return them.
Upon receiving this response, Miriam Ali contacted the British authorities and they generated a nationwide protest which led to the Middle Eastern nation allowing Zana and Nadia to return to their home in Birmingham, albeit in a terrible condition.
The farewell
To leave Yemen, Zana and Nadia had to leave their children, so the sisters reached an agreement: the eldest would leave first and do everything possible to get the youngest and her children out of their personal hell. So, After eight seemingly endless years, Zana returned with Miriam to London. At the same time, she started a series of requests so that Nadia could leave her husband's country with her children.
It should be noted that this is the end of Sold, and that the resolution of the situation of both sisters can be seen more clearly in the following book by Zana Muhsen and Andrew Crofts: A Promise to Nadia —A promise for Nadia, for its translation into Spanish—.
Years later, the younger sister herself gave interviews to clarify her point of view on Zana's books, with which I did not really agree. Despite this, both women and their children were able to reunite and stay together in England in 2015.
Who is Andrew Crofts, the ghostwriter of Sold Out
His name may not be well known to some people, but Andrew Crofts He has written some of the biggest bestsellers in the entire UK. Not much is known about his personal life or his profession, but it is estimated that the writer was born in England in 1953. Additionally, he studied at Lancing College. After graduating he moved to London and there he carried out various activities, such as journalism and writing travel books.
Because of his position as a ghostwriter, It is not easy to determine how many titles correspond to his authorship or accompaniment. Even so, publishers have shown a lot of interest in him and his work. Andrew Crofts has demonstrated such skill in literary and non-fiction creation that publishers have begun requiring books to be signed with his name attached to the person who finances the work or proposes the idea.
In 2014, Andrew Crofts wrote Confessions of a ghost writer, an autobiography full of all those events that have marked him as a practitioner of black writing. As a good criticism, the Daily Telegraph has pointed out that, when the author must work with a client of some fame, his professionalism is present to the point of keeping his collaboration a complete secret.