BOOK OF THE MONTH: Before The Night Comes: One mans fight for the girls of Brazil's 'exploitation highway'

JANUARY BOOK OF THE MONTH

REVIEWER: Ali Hull

BOOK: Before The Night Comes: One Mans Fight for the girls of Brazil’s ‘exploitation highway’
Author: Matt Roper
(Mirror books, 2024) 336pp, paperback, RRP £9.99 

This is the story of Matt Roper, the British journalist who went out to Brazil and started a charity there to rescue girls from a life of selling themselves to lorry drivers on one of the country’s motorways. Shocked by both the age of the girls – some as young as ten or eleven –  the indifference of the authorities and the involvement of the girls’ families, who saw it all as normal, Matt and his wife moved to the country, and set to. 

What they discovered was extreme poverty, and a lack of choices. While being horrified by the fact that it was often the mothers who sent the girls out each evening, to hang around at the truck stops along the motorway to look for clients, Matt soon realises that when families have to eat, and when there is no other source of income, whatever presents itself will be grabbed with both hands. And he also realises that the girls themselves become hardened by the life, unable to leave it. He has to act quickly in each case, before it is too late. 

Their work there has been going for a while now, and has grown. From being able to protect one or two girls, they set up safe houses, and as the girls grew up and established independent lives, more appeared. But the book is not really the story of an organisation – it is a collection of individual stories: the girls themselves, those who got away, those who went back to the motorway, for whatever reason, and those who simply disappeared, often murdered.  

There are few references to faith, although faith was definitely involved. The book is very well written, as one would expect from a journalist, and its aim is to attract support for what Matt’s charity, Menindanca, is doing, and not to convert. I recommend it as a good read, an inspiring story, and insight into what people can do if it matters enough to them that something should be done.

Reviewer: Ali Hull has worked with words for over 30 years, in book publishing, magazines, PR and as a writing and publishing consultant.