She spent part of the money on medicine for the baby. While Sang Li is showing the book to the baby, the rent collector arrives and threatens to evict them since Sang Li doesn’t have enough money to pay the rent in full. One day Ki Lim finds a picture book in the dump and brings it home, thinking his son might enjoy looking at the bright pictures. An ornery, cranky old woman comes once a month to collect the rent. Sang Li picks through the dump as well when she can, but most of her time is taken up with caring for her small ill son. If he’s lucky he puts away a coin or two to pay the rent on their miserable shack. Ki spends from dawn to dusk digging through the dump, searching for anything recyclable to earn enough coins to buy rice and a few vegetables for that day’s food. Ki Lim and Sang Ly live in a shack inside the largest city waste dump in Cambodia, Stung Meanchey, with their infant son who is ill and often requires treatments the young couple cannot afford. There is much that is sad or deplorable, but the theme is based more on hope, the human drive to move beyond the negative, and the belief that there is always the possibility of a second chance. It is not a depressing book as one might expect. It’s based on a real family living in a garbage dump in Cambodia. The Rent Collector by Camron Wright is one of those rare books that stretches beyond a great story to touch the reader’s soul.
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