‘These quick ones are preferable’
British-Hungarian author Olivia Wild works in veterinary medicine and is practiced in yoga and pole fitness. She also is an exciting new author in the Crime Thriller and New Adult genres. Her writing is inspired by true events in her own life, which enabled her to expose a darker side of the world we live in. Her first book, “The Sex Tourist”, took two years to write and allows closure on a tumultuous chapter in Olivia’s life. Whilst it is an honest and heart-wrenching story about a sex worker who falls in love, it is also a story of the unwritten bonds between two sisters. Interestingly Olivia Wild may be a moniker because she adds the following information – ‘My name is Vivian Biro. My sister, Lily, was a sex worker. She was brutally murdered. Book One was written by Lily, and it could be read as an extraordinary autobiography with tremendously explicit sex scenes. Book Two is my own writing and it is more like a crime thriller about my quest through three continents to track down Lily's killer.’ Or this could be simply part of the enormous impact and realism of this book.
The fascination with this book clearly begins in the Prologue: ‘This book is in memory of my beloved sororal twin, Lilian. The last time I saw her alive she talked about her ambition to become a writer one day. That way, she would have escaped her death-trap: prostitution. I inherited both her handwritten diary and, on her laptop, her very first book in the making. Time and time again I read and re-read many parts of these writings and often asked in vain, “Lily, why didn’t you tell me about this?” I still feel strongly that I could have saved her, if only I knew… Whether outlawed or legalized, the vast majority of prostituted girls, and to a certain extent the dancers in strip clubs, are abused. This form of abuse shall prevail as long as there is fear of poverty or evil pimps. Irrespective of the causes of their entrapment, these girls are indiscriminately stigmatized by most people. This is unfair. To most of her “customers” Lilian meant nothing more than a juicy steak in a restaurant, either well done or medium rare depending on the customer’s taste, which they could order, consume, pay for, and excrete the following day. Anne Brontë’s most famous novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, gave my sister the first inspiration to become a writer. Lilian started writing her book about three months before she died. She wanted it to be a testimony about her journey through drugs and prostitution, and an inspiration to other working girls. Book One, with the exception of the Prologue and the very last chapter, is Lilian’s work. It’s based on her own diary. I changed the Hungarian currency references to euros (Hungary’s currency is the forint, but tourists sometimes pay in euros anyway), but otherwise kept the editorial modifications to a bare minimum. Book Two is my own writing. I tried to follow Lilian’s style, and chronologically it starts where hers comes to an abrupt end. The settings are: Hungary, Switzerland, England, the USA, and South Africa. Our namesake was the inventor of the ballpoint pen. It is less known that biro means judge in Hungarian. I sincerely hope that one day there would be a chance of proper justice for girls who suffered similar fates as Lilian.’
No matter the style of telling this story, the author writes with authority and finesse, able to create the world of call girls/prostitutes exceptionally well, but even more important her writing technique is one of immediacy so that the reader is drawn into the novel almost as a voyeur. That works extremely well for a novel of this scope.
Olivia’s synopsis captures the story line succinctly – ‘When sex worker Lilian falls for a British guy she can’t help but imagine a better life for herself, but the temptation of easy money will ultimately seal her fate. After finding Lilian’s diary, her sister, Vivian, sparks a private international man hunt, using whatever resource she can and without any help from the authorities, in the hope of catching her sister’s killer. But to do so Vivian must also face the shocking reality of the life her sister had led. The trail to discover the truth is often more complicated than it first seems…’
Shared with the reader with significant erotica steam THE SEX TOURIST opens our eyes to an occupation about which we understand little. This is a very fine debut novel from a clever and fresh new author.