Camron Wright

Survival for Ki Lim and Sang Ly is a daily battle at Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal waste dump in all of Cambodia. They make their living scavenging recyclables from the trash. Life would be hard enough without the worry for their chronically ill child, Nisay, and the added expense of medicines that are not working. Just when things seem worst, Sang Ly learns a secret about the bad-tempered rent collector who comes demanding money--a secret that sets in motion a tide that will change the life of everyone it sweeps past. The Rent Collector is a story of hope, of one woman's journey to save her son and another woman's chance at redemption.

For Ki Lim og Sang Ly er hver dag en kamp for å overleve. De bor på Stung Meanchey, den største kommunale søppelfyllingen i Kambodsja, og livnærer seg ved å plukke søppel som kan selges videre. Som om ikke livet var vanskelig nok, må de også bekymre seg for sitt kronisk syke barn, Nisay, og utgiftene til dyr medisin som ikke virker. Når det ser som mørkest ut, oppdager Sang Ly at den gretne kvinnen som kommer og krever inn husleia har en stor hemmelighet. Hemmeligheten setter i gang en bølge av hendelser som vil endre livet til alle som blir truffet av den. En lykkens dag er en fortelling om håp, om én kvinnes kamp for å redde sønnen og en annen kvinnes mulighet til forsoning.

Carter is an insurance adjuster whose longing for creative expression spills over sometimes into his accident reports. Abby works for her adoptive father, Uncle Mannie, in the family bookstore, the ReadMore Café. Carter barely tolerates Christmas; Abby loves it. She can't wait past October to build her favorite display, the annual Christmas book tree stack, which Carter despises. When an automobile accident throws Carter and Abby together, Uncle Mannie, who is harboring secrets of his own, sees a chance for lasting happiness for his little girl. But there are so many hurdles, and not much time left. Will this Christmas deliver the miracle everyone is hoping for? Where love and Christmas are concerned, there are no accidents.

Two coasts. Two strangers. And a bridge that silently beckons them both. Katie Connelly has lived in San Francisco all her life. Her late father made his career on the Golden Gate Bridge, and the many stories of how he saved jumpers still haunt her. And now her job assignment is to write about the history of the bridge—a history that includes a secret journal about a promise ring and a love story that may be the answer to her unresolved sorrow.   Meanwhile, Dave Riley, a marketing executive in New York, has sorrows of his own. Grasping at straws after tragedy strikes his family, he decides to follow a daydream that has turned into an obsession: to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge on a motorcycle on the Fourth of July.  Does the bridge somehow mysteriously hold the answers both Katie and Dave are looking for? Or will they find something completely different when they get to the other side?