The Rent Collector

Survival for Ki Lim and Sang Ly is a daily battle at Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal waste dump in all of Cambodia. They make their living scavenging recyclables from the trash. Life would be hard enough without the worry for their chronically ill child, Nisay, and the added expense of medicines that are not really working. Just when things seem most bleak, Sang Ly learns a secret about the hated, ill-tempered woman, the "the rent collector"-she can read Reluctantly she agrees to teach Sang Ly and does so with the same harshness she applied to her collection duties until they both learn how literacy has the power to instill hope and transcend circumstance.

Based on a true story, set in the abject poverty of Cambodia against the backdrop of political oppression and the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Published: 09/01/2012
ISBN: 9781609071226
Pages: 271
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.20w x 1.20d
Award: IndieFab awards - Gold Medal Winner
Award: Benjamin Franklin Award - Silver Medal Winner
Award: Utah Book Award - Finalist
Award: Utah Book Award - Finalist

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 09/17/2012