Sang Ly and Kim Li live in Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal waste dump in all of Cambodia. Here are a small selection of discussion topics for The Rent Collector that may help your book group launch a discussion relevant to your groups’ interests. Soriyan Song: Sopeap’s past life Discussion Topics

Maly: young girl living at Stung Meanchey whose brother wants to sell her as a prostitute Lucky Fat: orphan boy about 10 years old living at Stung Meanchey Narin Sok: Sang Ly’s cousin who sometimes watches Nisay Sopeap Sin: The Rent Collector, whose story unfolds throughout the novel Sang Ly: narrator who has made her home in Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal waste dump in Cambodia

The Phnom Penh Post summarized the findings for Cambodia. It looks across three key indicators of poverty: health, education, and standard of living. The United Nations Development Programme releases an annual report on poverty called the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). Photographer Maciej Dakowicz captured photos of the Stung Meanchey garbage dump in 20. At a minimum, view the trailer for River of Victory, to glimpse images sharing the lives of this young family. You can peek into their lives in the documentary River of Victory. The Rent Collector was inspired by real people living at the Stung Meanchey garbage dump in Cambodia. I recommend that you read the book before this guide. If one of your participants dismisses the choice as 'being too depressing' perhaps that's all the more reason to talk about what's shared in this straight-forward novel and take your group on a discussion of multidimensional poverty- individuals who experience deprivation across areas of health, education and standard of living- such as the families portrayed in the novel.Īs with all of my guides, this may contain spoilers. The Rent Collector is a quick read and an excellent choice for a book discussion. And certainly, throughout the novel, my view of home broadened. The characters in the story introduced me to how someone could create their home and find beauty even amid squalor work hard and form strong relationships in their neighborhood even as they work to find a way out. Yet, as the book reminds us, stories don't always take us where we expect. The cover of this book belies the nature of the story (not that I should be holding a gavel while selecting books), nonetheless, looking at the photograph of shacks clustered together in a dump, I expected to open to a depressing read.

The rent keeper book