Hey, it's NPR's book at the day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. What does it take to rebuild America?

That's sort of the question at the heart of the book today. It's titled The Great Escape,

A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America by labor organizers Sokett Sony.

And it's about the hundreds of Indian men who were sold a false

promise after Hurricane Katrina. A company came up to them and said, hey, give us $20,000,

come to America, help us rebuild some oil rigs, and we'll give you a new green card. Of course,

that green card never came, and they were forced to work under squalid conditions.

The book is one of NPR's books we love this year because of how it highlights not just the

exploitation going on, but the humanity of these men.

Socket Sony talked to hearing as Deepa Fernandez about how the thing that actually helped

organize these men to fight for their rights was food.

That's after the break.

In 2006, Sarkat Sonny was a labor organizer working in New Orleans when he received a phone

call from a stranger in Mississippi desperate for help.

The caller was an Indian migrant worker who had been lured to the U by a company called Signal International to repair oil rigs damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

In a meeting at a local church and in gatherings afterwards, Sarket learned that there were hundreds of men living in what Signal called man camps under appalling conditions.

They believed they were working towards green cards, but in reality, the men were temporary

workers whose signal could send home at any time. Eventually, Sarkat helped the men escape

and led them on a march to Washington, D.C., to publicize their

plight and helped them stay in the U.S.

But all along the way, they were shadowed by agents of ICE and continually being discredited

by signal.

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