Beatrice, a thirteen-year-old orphan who lives with her older brother in Kibera, a slum in Nairobi, Kenya, describes her life at home and at school, including the daily walk, the overcrowded classrooms, housework, and her hope of becoming a nurse.
Maggie Johnson dreams of escaping New York's Bowery and her alcoholic family. After her younger brother dies she runs off with a bartender only to find herself abandoned when he finds someone else. Offers a stark image of urban American life at the end of the nineteenth century.
Features the tale of a pretty young girl driven to brutal excesses by poverty and loneliness, and includes five additional short stories by Stephen Crane.
