Slave

Mende Nazer's Slave: My True Story belongs to a genre I've never encountered before -- the contemporary slave narrative. She grew up in a small tribe in Sudan, and the first part of her biography describes what was, except for the nastiness of a female circumcision, a happy childhood. When she was 12, Arab raiders attacked her village, burning huts, killing many people, and capturing the author and other girls.

She ended up a house slave, spending all her time cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children. She was beaten, deprived of social contact, and not allowed to leave the house. After several years, she managed, unlike most slaves, to escape.

Though I've heard in abstract that slavery still exists, it's shocking to read the first-hand account of a modern-day slave. It's an unsettling juxtaposition of the ante-bellum South with modern technology like airplanes and VCRs. Nazer, with the assistance of journalist Damien Lewis, presents a lively and powerful account of what she lived through, and what plenty of her contemporaries are still, sadly, contending with.