Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves,...

"'Do you think it's possible to ever see the past as it actually was?' I asked my sister. We were sitting in her car, parked in front of the Dutch House in the broad daylight of early summer." At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate...

"Life is hard for ten-year-old Safiyah in the Kibera slum outside Nairobi. Too poor to go to school, she makes a meager living for herself and her grandmother by selling things she finds at the garbage dump. The pages of the glossy magazines she finds at the dump are full of pictures of beautiful people doing things Safiyah can only dream about. But the magazines also inspire Safiyah to create something that may give her and Cucu the chance of a better...

"A unique and riveting exploration of one of America's largest and fastest-growing industries--the business of poverty"--Provided by publisher.

During the coldest season, when the world feels scary -- what do you remember about being warm? Baked potatoes. Trust. A kettle on the stove. Blankets. A smile. And, most of all, the reassurance that you belong. In his powerful and moving poem, featuringillustrations from thirteen extraordinary artists, bestselling author and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Neil Gaiman draws together many different memories to answer the question, 'what do you need to be...

A journalist describes the years she worked in low-paying domestic work under wealthy employers, contrasting the privileges of the upper-middle class to the realities of the overworked laborers supporting them.

With her mama recently dead and her pa sight unseen since birth, Amelia is suddenly in charge of her younger brother and sister-- and the family gas station. To keep a competitor at bay and keep her family out of foster care, Melia must come up with a father-- fast. When a hobo rolls out of a passing truck, Melia grabs opportunity by its beard. Can she convince the town that Hiram is her long lost father, and keep the family together until she comes...

What does it mean to be poor? For decades, the dominant narrative in the UK and US has been that it is caused by personal flaws or 'bad life decisions'. People are 'lazy', 'dependent' and 'irresponsible'. This 'story' has become embedded in the public consciousness with serious ramifications for how financially vulnerable people are seen, spoken about and treated. Drawing on a two-year story-telling project and her own experience of childhood poverty,...

Summary of Evicted by Matthew Desmond | Includes Analysis Preview: Matthew Desmond's Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City is a sociological study of evictions, housing, and homelessness in Milwaukee. The book follows the lives of a number of tenants and landlords in order to examine how access to housing affects the poor. Desmond also includes historical background, statistics, and research findings to provide context for his narratives....

No sabemos exactamente a qué tono corresponde el "color de la miseria" como se llama en las primeras páginas de esta novela al color hollín. Solemos asociar el hollín a la suciedad, a la pobreza, a algo gastado, a una tonalidad que se aleja de aquello digno de contemplación, como el paisaje natural de un campo, una playa, o un jardín con flores. Este colorido, el del hollín, será uno que guíe la descripción del entorno de esta novela, en...