In a parallel world, a young man from a close family is accused of killing a noble beggar, and the entire family is exiled to a bleak, heartless place--our own world.
The Necessary Beggar is a fantasy/sci-fi novel with strong overtones of the immigrant experience in the United States, as this dramatically displaced family first appears in a refugee camp in a remote section of the United States, and tries to make their way from there.
Their trials and tribulations--compounded by the young man's suicide, and subsequent re-appearance as an unhappy ghost--are interesting throughout and certainly parallel contemporary experiences (minus the ghost).
Susan Palwick's novel is rewarding on many levels as a fantasy novel as well as a contemporary fable.
I found this book on a goodbye shelf at the local Hastings bookstore and read it in one day on my flight to Italy.
The Necessary Beggar is a fantasy/sci-fi novel with strong overtones of the immigrant experience in the United States, as this dramatically displaced family first appears in a refugee camp in a remote section of the United States, and tries to make their way from there.
Their trials and tribulations--compounded by the young man's suicide, and subsequent re-appearance as an unhappy ghost--are interesting throughout and certainly parallel contemporary experiences (minus the ghost).
Susan Palwick's novel is rewarding on many levels as a fantasy novel as well as a contemporary fable.
I found this book on a goodbye shelf at the local Hastings bookstore and read it in one day on my flight to Italy.
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