The Rent Collector is the best book I've read in a long time. The author, Camron Wright paints pictures with words so well that I can nearly imagine it all. It takes place in a dump in Cambodia. It follows the life of a young wife and mother, Sang Ly. She and her husband, Ki live and work in the dump, collecting things that can be recycled for money to for food and rent. On top of all the challenges of living and working at the dump, Sang Ly and her husbands's infant son, Nisay is continually sick.
Their rent collector is a harsh, demanding woman named, Sopeap Sin. The woman is often drunk which adds to her harshness. Once while collecting rent, she sees a book that Sang Ly has stares at it. That makes Sang Ly think that the woman must know how to read. So, the takes a leap of faith and asks the cruel woman to teach her to read. Sang Ly thinks it could change her family's life. Surprisingly, Sopeap Sin agrees. She used to be a teacher, which shocks Sang Ly. They meet once a week. Sang Ly looks in the trash for advertisements and books.
The dump is a sad, dangerous place. Sang Ly's husband gets robbed and beaten. A little boy, Lucky who lives alone runs to Sang Ly for help. A young girl that he knows needs help. Sang Ly runs to help and sees that she is having her cycle for the first time. She's an orphan and lives with her brother who is in a gang. Sang Ly tells the girl how to tell her brother and what to do to take care of herself. It's explained to Sang Ly that since the girl is now a woman, she'll be sold as a sex slave. Sang Ly must help. They come up with a plan to help the girl get away from the dump safely and live a new life. Sang Ly helps raise money for the girl's travel costs.
Ki is trying to get people together to take on the gangs who rule the dump. This scares Sang Ly as she fears for the safety of her family.
Meanwhile, she's learning to read and it's opened up a whole new world for her. While Sopeap Sin is a harsh person, she's a good teacher and Sang Ly is a great student. They start studying literature and looking for the deeper meaning in those stories. They're nearing the end of what there is to learn.
Nisay is still so sick, nothing helps. Sang Ly feels her deceased grandfather tell her to return home and see the local medicine man. It's a long expensive trip and they must save up for it. Sang Ly takes a book for the ride. The bus ride gets longer as there's a delay. People get fussy including young Nisay, so Sang Ly reads her book out loud to him. She notices that others are listening along. They reach their destination, but her captive audience must hear the end of the story. The driver and passengers agree to wait for her to finish the book. Once the book is read and her family disembarks, everyone smiles and thanks her for reading to them.
Once in her home village, Sang Ly sees the medicine man, who it turns out was friends with her deceased father. The medicine man comes up with how to treat Nisay. As they leave, the medicine man, he shares a photo and stary of Sang Ly's father that she'd never known before. The treatment cures Nisay; finally!
Sopeap Sin is often sick, someone mentions that they saw her in the hospital and she has cancer. Sang Ly doesn't know how to broach the topic. Sopeap Sin says she must go away soon. Throughout their time together, Sang Ly learns that Sopearp Sin used to be married and had a child. Slowly the story rolls out. At that time, there was much political unrest in Cambodia and all the educated people were targeted and killed. Sopeap Sin and her housekeeper return home to see that rebel forces are there ready to harm her family. Her husband proclaims the housekeeper as his wife. The housekeeper plays along. They hear the baby cry and they beg the rebels not to, but they kill baby her husband and who the presume to be his wife who is actually the housekeeper. So, the wife takes the housekeeper's name as hers. It turns out she actually owns the property she collects rent for. She sends much of the money to the real Sopeap Sin's family. Sang Ly tracks down the family and learns more about the rent collector. She tells them that the real Sopeap Sin is dead.
Sopeap Sin the rent collector has disappeared. Sang Ly uses all the info she learns and with the real Sopeap's Sin's family she tracks her down. She's back in the house she shared with her family. The owner lets her spend her last days there. Sopeap's family thanks her for her financial support. Sang Ly spends the rest of Sopeap Sin's time with her and then she passes away. Sopeap Sin leaves Sang Ly and Ki her house with a huge library that's outside of the dump. How much their lives were changes by the rent collector.
