Changes

And that's where their employers have the whip hand: it requires very little for a foreign worker to be deported and the girls even have to take pregnancy tests every six months. If it's positive the girl is on the plane home. Sexual abuse is not uncommon, security guards won't let them use the swimming pools in the condominiums and some employers lock the maid's passport away and enforce curfews on their day off. Not all employers are like this: Jules is fresh out from the UK, where she'd been a midwife - and these attitudes are alien to her. She's struggling to get on with the other women (and some of the men) where she lives. The maids look after their children and they have lives of leisure: Jules works part-time as a doctor's receptionist. They can't understand why she doesn't have children: Jules doesn't want to tell them that her third round of IVF has just failed.

That makes the book sound rather worthy and I don't want it to put you off reading the book. It's informative, but there's a darned good story there too. I was completely tied up in the mystery of which of the employers was writing the blog detailing all the ways you should keep your servant in check and my heart was in my mouth for Tala and Dolly on more than one occasion. It's a book to read and then read again so that you can appreciate all the nuances. I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.