Factory Girl

This hard-hitting novel focuses on the indenture of 16-year-old Roshen, who is forced to leave her close-knit Muslim Uyghur family in northwest China and work in a uniform factory. La Valley (The Vine Basket) sensitively conveys the culture shock of the sheltered Uyghur girls during their harrowing journey—via van, train, and the cargo box of a truck—and within the factory itself. Their cruel matron and draconian bosses dictate that they can no longer wear their headscarves and must only speak Mandarin or lose pay. Roshen emerges as a quiet leader, inspiring the other girls and protecting them when she can. The narrative strongly sketches the brutal conditions in the factory, including long hours in windowless workrooms, tea laced with stimulants, surveillance cameras in bathrooms, acute hunger, and the refusal to pay the Uyghur girls until they have worked off their trip. An already tense story becomes even more so as the bosses try to force some of the girls into sexual situations. Readers will admire Roshen’s resilience in the face of stark exploitation. Ages 14–up. Agent: Marietta Zacker, Gallt & Zacker Literary. (Jan.)