![]() ![]() KB: The Rent Collector is a novel based on real people and events. The Rent Collector is a story about hope and our human condition, and those are things that don’t change. As it turns out, I changed almost nothing. It was the first time I’d been to the country and I was worried that after the visit, I would need to rewrite large sections of my story. Once The Rent Collector was picked up for publication, I traveled to Cambodia to present an advance copy to Sang Ly. And I read books on literature, writing and myth, as these were all important to the story I wanted to tell. I also read numerous books on Cambodia that covered the geography, people, and the country’s unbelievable and often horrific history. KB: Besides studying your son’s film footage, what kind of research (if any) did you have to do?ĬW: I relied quite heavily on my son’s experience as someone who lived in the country for several years and speaks fluent Khmer. More than the setting, however, I was struck by the courage and fortitude of the people, especially Sang Ly, who was relentless in her search of a cure for her ailing son. Living at the dump provided the means for Sang Ly’s family to stay together, but at the same time, it was killing her son. I was immediately taken by the notion of a garbage dump as the story’s setting, since it’s so rich in irony and metaphor. Krista Bean: Where did the idea for The Rent Collector come from?Ĭamron Wright: My book was inspired by a documentary that my son filmed at the Stung Meanchey dump in Cambodia. ![]()
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