‘I was looked at, criticized, and after much bargaining sold for $250.’

So begins Janet Lim’s ordeal as a mui tsai, or slave girl, in 1930s Singapore. But this is only the beginning of a remarkable journey, which sees the author freed from child bondage to assume a position of leadership, and obtain true happiness, in later life.

After gaining her freedom, Janet is educated by missionaries and serves under colonial tutelage as a nurse. Her misfortunes return, however, when Singapore falls to the Japanese in 1942—the ship that she flees Singapore on is bombed and she drifts for days at sea. Rescued by Indonesian fishermen, she is finally captured and imprisoned in Japanese-occupied Sumatra. To avoid becoming a comfort woman Janet escapes into the jungle villages of West Sumatra but is once again caught, and this time tortured by the Japanese military police and threatened with the firing squad.

Janet’s writing is honest, enthralling and inspirational. Despite a horrific childhood and early adult life, Janet is able to find benevolence and even humour in her misfortune.

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