Mountain Wolf

by Rosanne Hawke

Radaq is a young man who loves his life in the mountains. He works hard to support his family and although only 15, he is looking forward to marriage to the girl his parents have chosen. This is the way life should be. Then the mountain is shaken by an earthquake and his whole family is killed. Alone and in shock, he is easy prey for a man who claims he will provide him free transport to the city to find his uncle. The transport is free all right, but instead of his uncle, a life of slavery is ahead. First he is sold to a man running a tea shop, but very quickly his good looks catch the eye of another adult and he is sold on and trained in the art of massage, and ‘whatever’.

Genres: Young Adult

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

When little I ran around with a jotter and a pencil, pretending to write a story but not knowing how to spell any words except Dick, Dora and cat. My mother asked me to tell stories. A lot of my stories stayed in my head, as being the youngest and living in the country didn't bring many opportunities for an audience. I was born in Penola, in South Australia. We had a sheep farm until I was six, then we moved to a property in Central Queensland. I went to school at a one-teacher school in Banana, a little country town named after a bullock.

My first short story was published in the Moura State School magazine in 1967 when I was in grade 8. At 14 years, I moved back to South Australia and attended Gawler High School where I won an Arts Scholarship to complete Years 11 & 12. I started a romantic novel when I was 17 but I burnt it later.

It wasn't until I was working in the Middle East and Pakistan, teaching ESL, bringing up kids, when I started to write seriously. My kids loved the story game we played and one night after telling a story, my daughter asked me to write it down.

I have a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Adelaide and teach Creative Writing at Tabor Adelaide, South Australia, a Christian accredited tertiary institution. I have researched Cornish identity in Australian children's literature and enjoy writing about culture, faith, relationships, displacement and belonging, music and cats.

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is such a gruelling read. The fact that there is still human slavery breaks my heart and my heart was smashed while reading this story. My shoulders were constantly tense and I had a lump in my throat most of the time, while reading – this is not a story for the faint hearted but a story that needs to be read. Human trafficking, child slavery and sex slavery happens in our world – yes this story is fiction but it is based on reality.
Yes! Read this book.

[Anne Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A confronting novel about child slavery, set in Pakistan. Razaq's family is killed in an earthquake. Green-eyed, fair-skinned and small for his age, he is lured out of the mountains into the city of Rawalpindi. His looks make him a valuable commodity as he gains the wrong sort of attention while looking for his uncle.

[Jeanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rosanne Hawke tackles difficult topics in her fiction and Mountain Wolf is no exception. The story gives a human face and a beating heart to child trafficking and the sex trade, something that can happen anywhere, but in this case is set in Pakistan. When Razaq's home and family are destroyed by an earthquake, a family friend is tricked into selling him into slavery. Razaq finds himself in a difficult situation in the faraway city and seeks escape and find his uncle. Despite his efforts, let's just say, things get worse before they get better.

Razaq is a great character, kind and courageous with the spirit of a mountain wolf. Yet, he almost loses courage due to shame and stigma of what happens to him. Hawke does not shy away from the hard bits of the story, but she doesn't dwell on it either nor glamourizes what happens to Razaq and thousands of children like him. Nor does she trivialise the impact on Razaq and his new-found friends or the difficulty of recovery. Nevertheless, she has written a human story with a lot of heart and always a glimmer of hope, in a way that kept me turning the pages to find out what happens to this boy.

I think this is the best yet of Rosanne's Hawke's thought-provoking novels I’ve read so far.

[Ernie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in contemporary Pakistan, in the mountainous tribal regions, Hawke tells a gripping story of how fourteen year old Razaq, who looks young for his age, is the only survivor in his family of an earthquake. However, his beauty betrays him into the evil child abduction traffic when his wish to search for his uncle in the city is exploited by unscrupulous men and women who gain his naive trust. It is only when he is locked in a small room by the madam of a brothel that he begins to understand what she has planned for him to pay off the ‘debt’ of his ‘rescue’.
Showing sensitivity for both her characters and her teenaged readers, Hawke uses euphemisms but does not avoid damming the child traffickers. Young readers, like Razak are allowed to slowly perceive the realities.
Hawke succeeds with her project because she knows, as a former aid worker, the country and the society very well. Moreover, she’s a good writer so her story is not only convincing but eventful and suspenseful. While Razaq tries unsuccessfully to find his uncle and avoid his fate, his uncle is searching the city to find him, and, with the aid of an international child protection agency, he rescues him.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

All wraps up a bit neatly in places, but still a moving and interesting look into the child sex trade in Pakistan. Hawke is great at evoking the sights and sounds of this part of the world and at bringing the realities and harshness of lives here to the readers attention.

Oh, and it has a quote from my Magpies review on the back! :-)

[Estelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book portrayed the horrific tale of a boy sold into slavery in modern day Pakistan. What horrified me is that Rosanne Hawke based this on things that really happen to children. This book is definitely an eye opener and I would recommend reading it as it make you realise that we definitely do not live in a perfect world.

[Penny Reeve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rosanne Hawke does an incredible job at tackling the painful subject of human trafficking in this novel for readers 16yrs up. The story of a 14 year old boy trafficked into the sex industry, Mountain Wolf is sensitively written. At times heart wrenching, the book highlights the strength, and yet potential fragility, of the human spirit.

[MelbourneSharonB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Pakistan, fourteen-year-old Razaq is off collecting water for his mother when an earthquake occurs. The consequences are dire for Razaq and his family. Story winds around exploitation, child slavery. A really grim story that does have a happy ending, almost.

[Denyse Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a difficult book not to read but to see what can happen so easily to vulnerable children. What they had to endure as child slaves was absolutely terrible and how manipulative some adults were. Certainly a story that needs to be told.

[Rebecca Steinhardt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Radaq and his family live in a small community in the mountains of Pakistan. They work hard, live off the land and are content with the simple life.

After an earthquake shakes their world, Radaq's family all perish and his family home is reduced to rubble. In his dying moments his father tells him that he must go in search for his uncle, Javaid.

At the age of 15, Radaq is thrown into a world of slavery, abuse and sheer terror. He has to learn quickly who he can and can't trust in order to survive.

Whilst I can appreciate the absolutely appalling situation that Radaq was thrown into I did feel that the story was a little flat for me. I imagined strong character development and emotions that took you on a real journey with Radaq but I felt like I really had to work for it.

It was an important story and one that can't help but open your eyes to what the reality is for some. So, in that respect I am glad that I read this book.

[Annie]

not my favourite book.

[Chantal · Rating 3 out of 5]

VERY confronting, bleak, deals with adult issues of child slavery, prostitution and worse.
Definitely recommend for senior secondary only! Many issues similar to Kite Runner.

[Roxanne Allsopp]

not my favourite book.