Poor People

In his book Poor People, William T. Vollmann asks the question: "Why are you poor?" In the tradition of James Agees Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Vollmann's Poor People gives its readers an opportunity to hear the voices of poor people in all its hopelessness and brutality, its pride and abject fear, its fierce misery and quiet resignation. His interviews with those who are attempting to survive on less than $2 per day result in an illuminating study of human existence. We come face-to-face with the suffering that poverty has wrought on thousands of individuals and families across the globe.