Ithaka Press, an imprint of Bonnier Books UK, will publish Every Body Counts: Secrets, Lies, and the Hidden Trade in Human Lives by author and news reporter Barbie Latza Nadeau.
Publishing Director Sarah Braybrooke acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Heidi Warneke at Editions Grasset in agreement with Vicki Satlow Literary Agency.
A wide-ranging investigation into the economics of the trade in humans, Every Body Counts reveals how, abetted by gangs of people smugglers, human trafficking has become the fastest-growing criminal industry in the world. As irregular migration takes centre stage and governments spend more than ever on policing borders, it promises to unveil ‘a secretive world where lives don’t matter, but where every body counts’.
The book was in part inspired by Latza Nadeau’s experience of meeting hundreds of victims of trafficking while investigating irregular migration into Europe. In it, she addresses not only sex trafficking, but the growing menaces of organ trafficking, forced drug cultivation, labour exploitation, and the emerging field of cyber scam trafficking. By following the money trail, Latza Nadeau explores how trafficking permeates not only the black market, but the highest echelons of national institutions, from mafia cartels to glamorous fashion houses, banks, and governments. And she speaks to experts who address how it can be curbed.
Barbie Latza Nadeau said: ‘Just scratching the surface of the scourge of human trafficking has revealed that we are all complicit in so many ways, either by turning a blind eye to the plight of victims, or knowingly buying products – from our cell phones to designer goods – that were made by people working in forced labour. We need to think about who harvested the vegetables we eat, who made the clothes we are wearing, who is doing our manicures or massages. Are they as free as we are? And if we aren’t sure, isn’t there something we should be doing about it?’
Sarah Braybrooke said: ‘In the UK we are hearing reports daily of the role that people smugglers play in bringing irregular migrants to the UK and the need to ‘smash the gangs’. But there is still very little understanding of how these networks operate, the ways they link up with traffickers, or the enormous sums of money that criminals are making from exploiting the desperate. In this impassioned, humane book, Latza Nadeau casts this urgent subject in a revelatory new light.’
Latza Nadeau is the author of three previous books, most recently The Godmother: Murder, Vengeance, and the Bloody Struggle of Mafia Women, published by PRH. Based in Italy, where she is a news reporter and producer for CNN, she has been reporting on human trafficking since 1998, when she was bureau chief for Newsweek Magazine. In 2025, Every Body Counts will also be published in French, German, Spanish, and Dutch.
Every Body Counts will be published in hardback, ebook and audio on 27th March 2025 by Ithaka Press.
