The Slave

A man goes to a prostitute and pays for thirty minutes of her time. But she lets him know she's a captive, a prisoner. What should he do? Go to the police?

He would be arrested. He has committed a serious crime: paying for sex with a trafficked woman, a 'controlled' woman. Besides, the police could not free her. She would be held in a detention centre before being deported - perhaps straight back into the hands of the traffickers.

The man is Neil Chapman and the woman is Liliana Petreanu. The Slave is the story of what Neil eventually does, and what happens to Liliana as a result... and the dilemma faced by Bernard Kassin, a respectable, law-abiding older neighbour.

It's a story about sex and society, men and women, freedom and slavery, law and lawlessness, in a quiet London suburb where such things really do happen.