My mother was a prostitute. My grandmother and
great-grandmother were prostitutes. Maybe I should have given the family
business a chance.
To Westerners, being Romani means being wild, romantic and
free. To Eliska Tanzer, it means being rented out to dance for older men. It
means living without running water. It means not being allowed a job or an
education. It means being stuffed into a bare room with all your aunts and
cousins, fighting over the thin, stained blanket the way you fight over the
last piece of half-mouldy bread. It means joining the family prostitution ring
when you're still a child.
But Eliska is given a way out after her mother scrapes
together the money to smuggle her out of the country to a new life. Arriving in
England in a washing-machine box, she thinks she has made it. But as a young
girl alone in a new country, Eliska soon sees her dream turn into a nightmare
when she is forced to live and work under unbearable abuse as she tries to
forge her way alone.
Drawing on the struggles of her Romani ancestors, Eliska is
inspired with the strength to carry on. She eventually starts a successful
business and becomes an accomplished writer and dancer. The Girl from
Nowhere is a triumphant story of family, persistence and the meaning of
freedom.