The great modern SF novel of the immigrant experience, as timely today as it was on its first publication, Susan Palwick's The Necessary Beggar.

Lemabantunk, the Glorious City, is a place of peace and plenty, bejeweled streets and glittering waterfalls. It is also a place of severe justice. Darroti, a young merchant, has been accused of the brutal murder of a highborn woman. Now, in keeping with his world's customs, his entire family must share in his punishment: exile to the unknown world that lies beyond a mysterious gate.

Passing through the gate, and grieving for the life they left behind, Darroti and his family find themselves in a harsh and hostile land: America just a few years hence. Unable to explain their origin, they're rapidly remanded to a desert internment camp along with thousands of other refugees. There they struggle to make sense of this ill-fated new world and its strange gods. They will eventually make their way out of the camp-and each of them will adapt, or fail to adapt, to their new lives according to their natures. And learn, or fail to learn, what actually happened back in Lemabantunk . . .

This new Tor Essentials edition of The Necessary Beggar includes an introduction by Jo Walton, Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award-winning author of Among Others.

"Triumphant...Succeeds as a heart-wrenching romance, a sharp meditation on refugees and
displaced persons, and a tragicomedy of cultural differences. Outstanding." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)