This hard-hitting novel explores the gritty underbelly of contemporary urban life, revealing the shocking chasm between demonized media images and the everyday life of the uneducated poor. Sheila McLeod Arnopoulos not only takes us inside the lives of young men who live by petty theft and women who work as strippers, but also reveals their aspirations and allows us to sympathize with their lives. Now also in a French translation.