What is most striking about the answers is the simplicity with which the poor regard their circumstances. If readers are looking for profound insights from the poor forget it; for the most part the poor are too busy begging to subsist, or killing their pain to ruminate deeply on their socio-economic status.

In the book’s introduction, Vollmann quotes Louis-Ferdinand Celine: “Poor people never, or hardly ever, ask for an explanation of all they have to put up with. They hate one another and content themselves with that.” It’s a depressing but accurate quote from dear old Celine and it sets the tone for what follows.

Vollmann’s book is much more than first-hand accounts from the poor. He lets the poor speak but he also interjects from his self-admitted position of privilege, relaying his reactions to poverty and describing his feelings for some of the people he talks with. It gives the book a very personal feel. Vollmann writes of his anger, fear and despair for the poor but he does so without sounding sanctimonious or condescending. For he also positions himself honestly – he is the rich American asking the questions. The poor know this and it affects their conversation some of the time. But Vollmann is not bothered. He is not conducting social science research. He does not feign objectivity. He also lets his interpreters’ instincts enter the fray when, for example, interpreters intimate that certain people are lying or exaggerating their claims; Vollmann relays this as well. Add to this that he draws on Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and various government and United Nations agencies for insights on poverty. But the experts in the book are clearly the subjects themselves and not the egg-headed philosophers or bureaucrats. Vollmann has more use for street-level experience than academic assessments of the poor.

‘Poor People’ does not have grand illusions. Vollmann does not set out to fix anything. He confesses late in ‘Poor People’ “This book is not “practical.” It cannot tell anyone what to do, much less how to do it.” Readers will have to content themselves with this. It works. And it is consistent with the spirit of the book. Vollmann does not force contrived resolution. No one is saved or lifted from misery, for that would be a false outcome. The poor Vollmann spoke with – if they are still alive – are certainly still poor. This is the depressing reality of poverty, the final point Vollmann makes.

Readers will be struck by the people Vollmann introduces. From the cheerily drunk Sunee in Thailand, to the superstitious Natalia in Russia, to Carty in Sacramento; Vollmann shows readers real people whose lives become fascinating thanks to the subtle manner with which he lets them tell their tales of woe. And while there are similarities among the poor in Thailand and, say, Columbia, the personal feel of the book prevents and stories from becoming faceless.

Vollmann is a courageous writer and always has been. For example, in ‘Poor People’, he seeks out – much to the horror of his translator – notorious Chinese gangsters living in Japan known as “Snakeheads” to glean insights on human trafficking. He also dives into the heart of the urban jungle in Columbia, where extortion and violence accompany poverty.

Vollmann also provides just enough analysis to give more weight to the already buoyant stories of his subjects. He writes knowledgeably about the circumstances of poverty (e.g., pain, invisibility, estrangement, etc. and how these are manifested in, for example, the collapse of the Soviet Union or China’s rush to capitalism or even a Buddhist’s grasp of bad karma as a cause of impoverishment). But it is the direct conversations that really hit and stick in this excellent, accessible book.

Why are you poor: Destiny … If I weren’t sick, I would gladly get a job … I think I am rich … We are not poor … It’s my fault! … Because I don’t have a job … I am not poor because I am a drunk. I have enough money to get drunk! … We can’t work on account of the paramilitaries … Money just goes to where it goes …

And so poverty persists.

Vollmann is also an accomplished photographer, as 128 of his black and white photographs join the text, shedding further light on the lives of the poor.

This superb book further enhances Vollmann’s well-earned reputation as one of the world’s boldest and bravest writers. ‘Poor People’ is not as dense or sweeping as some of his novels, while staying true to his obsession with destitution and all that it spawns. Hope is a central theme in ‘Poor People’. For a world that often seems to be tipping on its axis – Vollmann’s accounts of how the worst off on our globe get by provides some much-needed perspective.